Chapter 6: Light

"I don't know anything for sure, but I'm going to find out if I can." - The Green Mile

Harry's mind raced through as much of the prophecy as he could remember. "Six missing lines? Where?"

"Right at the end of the prophecy," Levina said briskly. "They're nothing to do with you being the Phoenix, though - they're something else." She crossed her legs and brought out a wand from where it was held to her robe with the cord, and began picking imaginary dust off it.

Harry frowned. "Well? What are they?"

Levina looked up in mock surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry? You want to listen to me now?"

"Very amusing," Harry said, glaring at her. "Yes, I do. I apologise for nearly pulling my wand out on you, but since there was the possibility of you being a mad, insane killer, I thought it might be for the best."

"Well said." Levina grinned, and tucked her wand away again. "Talking of mad, insane killers, I think I should tell you about the murder before I recite the missing lines. Yes," she said, noticing Harry's look, "I did know there was going to be a murder, but I thought it would be at least a few weeks before it actually happened. It seems that the idiotic girl decided to rush into things before thinking them through. No wonder she was made a Gryffindor," she muttered as an afterthought.

Harry petted Ajax absentmindedly. "What idiot girl? The murderer?"

Levina snorted. "Goddess, no! That little brat couldn't kill a Kneazle with a Killing Curse. I'm talking about the daemon she got to do her killing for her - though I'd have thought you'd have figured that out by now."

Harry almost slapped himself. Of course! It was so obvious now that he looked back on it! "You mean it was a daemon that killed Trelawney? One that was released from the Myrrh Cage?"

"Exactly," the woman nodded. "First she managed to contact one of the daemons inside the Cage - that wouldn't be too hard if you knew how to do it, Myrrh Cages can be used to do a lot of things besides just imprisoning the daemons. She must have struck a deal with it - agreed to give it freedom if it gave her something in exchange - of course, I don't know the details, but from what I've seen and heard it looks like it have promised servitude in trade."

She paused before continuing. "I don't know how much you know about daemons, but when they're put into a Cage, their food - the blood and flesh inside of them, the contents of their stomachs, fades away as they use it up - but daemons can't die in the Cages, even from starvation, which means that if they do get out, they're starved, violent and ready to sink their teeth into any flesh nearby. From the looks of things, the Summoner had a nice meal all ready for it; your Divination teacher."

Feeling sick to his stomach, Harry inclined his head to show he understood. It all made sense, after all.

Levina wasn't finished. "The only problem is, it takes more than just one human to fill a daemon up after they've been famished for Goddess-knows how many centuries. Which means," she said, looking at Harry pointedly, "it's going to hunt again. And soon."

Now Harry felt really sick. "When is 'soon'?"

"Probably some time tomorrow - if it's one of the earlier ones that was locked up, maybe before then."

"Wait a minute!" Harry suddenly yelped, nearly losing his balance as he leapt forwards. "You said it was a Gryffindor girl who Summoned the daemon! If we can catch her, we can find out which daemon she Summoned, and we'll know how to trap it!"

Levina raised an eyebrow. "Who said anything about we? Look," she said, sighing, "if I start going to the authorities to tell them about a daemon going around killing people, and the fact I know an awful lot about it - do you really think they're going to say 'Thanks for the info, we'll check it out'? Of course not! They'd arrest me, accuse me of murder, assume I'm working for the Dark, and kill me. Or if I show that I'm an android, they'd take me apart to study me. Personally I don't want either. I might only have artificial intelligence, but I don't have real stupidity."

"I didn't mean the authorities. I meant what I said - we." Harry said determinedly. "Look, you have all this knowledge, I can back it up with my Familiar and some Techno-Magic - oh bugger!"

Levina waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, don't panic about a little slip of the tongue. I know all about Techno-Magic; heck, I was created with the first small part of it, and I practically created the rest. And no, I'm not going to tell you how: you'll have to wait 'till you're older."

Harry gave her a mock glare. "Okay then, oh wise one. But my point still holds. I'm sure we could grab whoever it is and trap the daemon again. Just who Summoned it?"

Levina looked exasperated. "It's not that simple! Firstly, we'd have to get proof of her. I'm sure that if she's smart enough to plan all this, she'll be smart enough to create the perfect alibi, and I don't think the Resistance would react well to having their prized Phoenix suddenly accused of being a paranoid nutcase.

"Next, we'd have to find the Myrrh Cage, because once a daemon's been trapped in one Cage and escaped, it can only be either killed, or sent back to its original Cage. And then, even if we managed all that, we'd still have to find the thing and create the pentagram and weaken it enough to actually trap it. And do you think that's possible, when one of the partnership doesn't legally exist, so she can hardly go down the library and do some research, and the other is being kept watch on by just about everyone from the Dark to the media to the Resistance - not to mention just your dorm-mates!"

"It's still possible." Harry said stubbornly. "Perhaps we could figure out a way if you told me who it w-"

"No!" snapped Levina finally, standing up. "Look, I didn't come here to lock away the bad guys and save the day. I came here to tell you the last part of the prophecy, I came here to train you - not in fighting daemons, but in fighting the Dark - and I came to fulfil Merlin's last request of me, which was to seek out the Phoenix and make sure he lived long enough to face the Eclipse!" She stalked over to the door. "You'd better get back to your dormitory - it's past curfew. I'll see you again tomorrow at nine PM - come back here."

And with that, she whirled around and stalked out of the door before Harry could get another word in.

The scarred boy had a lot to think about as he made his way across the corridors under his Cloak; who the Summoner was - which daemon had been released of the six Figg had told him about - what the missing lines were - and what was the Eclipse (plus, where'd Ajax gone - he was sure he had been sitting on his shoulder before he put the cloak on)? Harry couldn't help but heave a sigh. Life was getting stranger every day, he mused, but stopped when he heard a thud and a hissed swear-word from behind a door just behind him.

Harry's blood turned to ice. Slowly turning around, he crept over to the door. Yes, there was another student hiding in the room. The Summoner, giving the daemon orders? It was unlikely, and it would be stupid to go in, in case it was - but Harry was a Gryffindor, famed for their stupi- sorry, bravery, and taking his cloak off and gently turning the handle, suddenly pushed it open and rushed in, earning a broom over the head for his troubles.

"Ow!" Harry yelped, his head feeling as though - well, as though someone had hit him with a broom handle.

"You?!" Draco Malfoy said in incredulity, before pulling the door shut. "Quiet, Potter! That thing's probably already figured out where we are, with your screaming."

Harry glared at the boy, rubbing his head. "Me? I seem to remember it was you who hit me with a broom in the first place! You should be blaming yourself. And what 'thing' are you on about? Scratch that, what are you doing in here anyway?" Here, Harry saw, was a small room, filled with cleaning equipment. It was nowhere near small enough to be a cupboard, but it was still a far cry from the spacious classrooms. Harry wasn't sure how it was lit - there were no windows or lights - but it was easily bright enough to see in.

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "I was walking back to the Slytherin Common Room about an hour ago, when I Felt someone behind me - someone hungry. And this wasn't 'I'm sneaking down to the kitchens' hunger, this was 'crazed blood-lust' hunger, which didn't exactly reassure me." At Harry's blank look, he groaned. "I'm an Empath. Dumbledore mentioned it up when we were talking about those Dark guys."

"I remembered!" Harry defended himself, having completely forgotten. "So what happened next?"

"I ran." said Malfoy bluntly. "I turned around, but they were faster - they'd hidden themselves in a second. Well, when there's just been a murder, and you've suddenly got a blood-thirsty stalker, I knew what to do. I ran to find a teacher, but everywhere I went it seemed to be right in front of me - I could Feel it, and every now and then, I'd see a flash of it slipping by. Then I ran up here, looking for a room where it couldn't find me - this thing was no way human - and this door appeared in front of me. I figured it wouldn't find me in here, and it hasn't. That's it."

Harry swallowed hard. "Oh. Okay, I have some bad news, and some very bad news."

Malfoy paused. "What?"

"The bad news is, the thing out there is a daemon. The really bad news is that it thinks we're a midnight snack."

There was a moments silence. "Bugger," said Malfoy eloquently. "What's a daemon doing here?"

"Some moron released it from the Myrrh Cage, and it killed Trelawney," Harry muttered just loud enough for Malfoy to hear, and stuck his ear to the door. "I don't hear anything."

"Neither did I," Malfoy pointed out bluntly, "I'd be dead by now if I hadn't Felt it." He pulled a face. "Just imagine that; all the students walking down to breakfast and finding this dry husk of a Slytherin in the corridor, with no eyes, tongue or blood. Yuck."

"That wouldn't be very pleasant." agreed Harry, still listening. "Could you keep it down? I've got enough of a headache from being hit with a broomstick, and you're making it worse. Not to mention the fact that if it didn't know where we were at my yell, it's probably figured it out from your yammering."

"You're talking more than me!" Malfoy retorted.

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am no- shh!"

Harry and Malfoy froze as there came a faint sound of something walking past the door. It stopped. It walked back to the door. The handle started to turn -

Levina got a broomstick over her head. "Ow! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Sorry," apologised Malfoy, lowering the broomstick. He swung it up again. "Hang on, who the heck are you?"

"Never mind him," Harry said, pulling the broomstick away from him. "He likes to hit people with sticks. It's a mental problem."

"Potter, the only one with a mental problem here is y-"

"What are you doing here?"

Levina raised an eyebrow. "That would be a question asked better of you."

Harry shrugged. "It looks like your timing was wrong again. It's hunting tonight, not tomorrow - it tried to kill Malfoy, and when I heard him hiding in here, I thought I'd go investigate. Then he hit me, and dragged me in here before the daemon noticed me and found us."

The woman snorted. "Brilliant. Well, I'm here because Ajax followed me, and kept trying to make me come back. Looks like he knew you were going to need help." For the first time, Harry noticed the Familiar perching on Levina's shoulder, looking - though Harry didn't know how it managed it - amazingly smug.

"You found a good place to hide," Levina reflected. "This is the Room of Requirement - it only appears when you need something enough. What were you looking for when you first found it?"

Malfoy looked at this magically-appearing woman suspiciously, and shrugged. "A place where it couldn't find me. As soon as I saw the door, I just ran in and closed it behind me."

"Well, you needn't worry, then." Levina grinned. "If you wanted a place it wouldn't find you, then the Room would have masked you from the daemon completely. To it, the door would have been invisible, your scent gone, you'd make no noise - it would be like you'd disappeared off the face off the Earth. The only reason Harry and I managed to find you is because you didn't not want to be found be anyone else."

Malfoy nodded impassively. "That's all very nice," he said sarcastically, "but how are we meant to get back to our dormitories without getting - oh, I don't know - torn apart and the blood sucked out of us?"

Levina glared at him. "Just need a passageway back." she snorted, and turned around to leave. Ajax hopped from her shoulder to Harry's, as the door closed behind her. "Well, that was a load of help," Malfoy snapped. "I'm guessing that was a friend of yours, Potter?"

"Not a clue," said Harry brightly, "but you might want to look behind you."

Malfoy did as Harry said - and just as Harry had willed as Levina had left, two doors decorated with a Slytherin and a Gryffindor crest, respectively, were situated on the wall behind them.

"You can stay here, but I want to get some sleep," Harry added, before opening the Gryffindor door and walking through into the boy's dormitory, where he hid the Cloak, pulled his pyjamas on and slid into his bed, falling into the same deep sleep which had captured the others in the room.

"Where were you last night, mate?" Ron whispered urgently at the breakfast table. "I mean, I managed to stop Dean, Seamus and Neville from telling the teachers you were gone - I figured you'd sneaked off somewhere - but when you didn't come back I was starting to get worried."

Not worried enough that you stayed awake, though, Harry grinned mentally. "Mrs Figg gave me some information yesterday, when she took me out of Defence - the different daemons that were in the Myrrh Cage. She thinks that someone stole the Myrrh Cage, and Summoned a daemon from it to kill Trelawney - I was just in the library, looking up some info on the different types."

Ron's jaw dropped. "A daemon? Loose in the school?"

Harry nodded, and moved up as Hermione came to sit at his other side - she'd been over talking to Ginny about the Ancient Runes lessons that Ginny had started taking. "What's loose in the school?"

"A daemon. No-one knows which type yet, but it's classified information." explained Harry, feeling rather important to know this. "I only know it because the Ministry think it was released by Voldemort to target me." he half-lied. After all, it was released, probably to target him - just not by Voldemort.

Hermione listened wide-eyed. "But, but... but they can't just... just keep it secret!" she stuttered, "That's incredibly dangerous! Even more than the Basilisk - it could kill half the school - they should be evacuating the grounds, not just sticking a few Aurors round to guard us!"

Harry shook his head. "They're probably specially trained - after all, why wouldn't they have been told? They probably think it's a weak one, so they don't want to cause a panic by abandoning the entire school."

Before the debate could turn into a full-fledged argument, the post-owls arrived, and two birds swooped down by Harry, carrying letters. A second wave of owls followed into the Hall, until nearly everyone had at least three letters; a minor panic followed in the air as birds tried to come in or get out, and by the time everything was sorted, Harry had six letters, Ron had four and Hermione had two, as well as her Daily Prophet.

As Ron and Hermione opened theirs, Harry also started to open his. The first letter was from Sirius - basically a warning not to get involved with anything, or to try and hunt down the murderer, because he had nothing to do with it. Harry nearly laughed at that - Sirius had no idea how much Harry was involved.

The second letter was from Mrs Weasley, telling him to go to Dumbledore if he even thought he was in danger.

Hagrid had written the third one - it basically told him that his 'business' was going well, that he'd been hearing rumours of someone being killed at Hogwarts - was there any truth in that? - and that a date for the wedding had been chosen, and he'd be honoured if Harry could be his best man. Harry, who had never been to a wedding, let alone as a best man, couldn't accept fast enough.

The fourth was an offer from the Daily Prophet for an 'exclusive interview' about the recent murder from the witness' point of view - Harry tore it up. The fifth was from Rita Skeeter personally, rather than from the Daily Prophet; Harry was about to tear that up, but remembered what Dumbledore had said about her working for the Resistance, and put it in his pocket to read later, when he was in private.

The sixth was from Gringotts; a monthly statement, now that his trust fund had been delivered, of the gold in his account. Harry was thankful for this; he had no idea how much money he had otherwise, and he had always wondered just how much was really in those golden piles.

He opened the envelope, and pulled the folded sheet of parchment out. Below the Gringotts' emblem, it said his the date; it was last month's statement - next month he would get Septembers' - his name, address, and then:

Money put into account (July): 0
Money taken out (July): 40 Galleons
Amount in account (July): 5682000 G
Interest - 4% (July): 227280 G
Total (July): 5909280 G

Harry mentally added the commas that he was used to, and nearly choked on his Pumpkin Juice. Five million, nine hundred and nine thousand, two hundred and eighty Galleons?! He struggled to work it out in his head; that would be about... he finally gave up and borrowed a quill from Dean to scribble on the remains of the Daily Prophet letter... fourteen million, seven hundred and seventy three thousand, two hundred pounds! Give or take ten or twenty pounds, of course. But that would mean that - and he could barely get his head round it - he was a...

"Multi-millionaire," he murmured in disbelief, but his word was picked up by Hermione.

"What did you say, Harry?" she asked, putting away her own letter (it looked like it was another 'Daily Prophet Interview Offer'). Before Harry could think to hide his letter, Hermione was peering over at it. "A Gringotts monthly statement? What's s- WOW!"

Harry winced as Hermione grabbed the letter, and Ron covered his ears at the shrill exclamation. "Harry, is this true? I mean, this isn't a joke, is it?" she lowered her voice so only Harry and Ron could hear, "You're not really getting nearly a quarter of a million Galleons in interest every month, are you?"

Now Ron nearly choked on his drink. "What?!" he gasped, eyes wide, and made a grab for the statement, but Hermione was too fast. "Harry," she said seriously. "Do you realise how much this is?"

Harry nodded and referred to the piece of paper. "Just over fourteen million, seven hundred and seventy three thousand pounds," he quoted, feeling surprisingly calm. "Excuse me," he said, and fainted.

Must be a new record, Harry thought when he woke up. In the Hospital Wing after only nineteen days at school. He ran the number through his head again. Yes, that was right - only nineteen days. It seemed impossible - how could all this have happened in nineteen days? Finding out the fate of the free world rested on your shoulders, the appearance of an android from Atlantis, some crazy person Summoning a daemon to kill you - well, probably to kill me, Harry corrected himself. After all, it hasn't targeted me yet, so I don't know for sure.

Rubbing the back of his head, where it was hurting every moment; he must have hit it when he fell sideways off the chair, Harry remembered exactly what had happened. He'd fainted in the middle in the Hall, surrounded by the entire school. Bugger. He probably hadn't looked like the heroic saviour everyone was going to be counting on.

Noticing that Madam Pomfrey wasn't around, Harry reached into the pocket of his robes (it looked like the nurse had decided not to dress him in the revolting hospital gown) and pulled out the letter from Rita Skeeter. No time like the present, after all.

It turned out to be simply a quick message that any information the Daily Prophet turned up would be sent to him immediately, and not to give any interviews to any of the newspapers.

Harry tore it up and threw it in the bin by the door - it wouldn't do any good for Ron or Hermione to see that Rita Skeeter was writing to him - before opening the door to leave. Two wands pointed at his face stopped him.

Just as quickly as Harry froze, the wands went down. "Sorry, sir." one of the Aurors barked emotionlessly, his gaze fixed somewhere above and beyond Harry's head. "We've been stationed to guard you, in case the murderer was still around, sir."

"Er - right." Harry muttered, checking his watch. Ten minutes past nine - he still had half an hour of Transfiguration. Thanking his friends for taking his schoolbag up as well, Harry grabbed it from beside the door and fled down the corridor, leaving the passionless Aurors behind.

Ignoring the Slytherins' sniggers, Harry made it through the rest of the day (Transfiguration, History and Magical Languages) with barely a mention of his embarrassing breakfast escapade.

At supper, Ron was perusing the Daily Prophet Hermione had received that morning; somehow, even though barely any details of the murder were known, and those that were known were classified, the killing had still made front page news. Unfortunately, the newspapers were doing this by making up the most unbelievable 'facts' possible to attempt to gain buyers.

The latest certainty was that Trelawney had been murdered by one of the other teachers, along with a House Elf, but the teacher was using blackmail against the Ministry to erase them as a suspect. Harry wasn't sure how anyone could believe this type of rubbish, but it was obviously working; the letters that morning had been from worried parents and relatives, and according to the stories going around, four students had already been pulled out.

"Listen to this!" Ron said suddenly, turning a page. "'Tensions are high at the up-and-coming business of Leskey Incorporated, which today announced plans for its first large factory. Originally a small, family business restricted to special orders of magical items, there has been a recent boom in want for magical servitude, and many are rushing to cash in. Leskey Incorporated's new factory will be situated in the Scottish highlands, employing approximately forty Witches and Wizards in its first year, and creating half a thousand Golems a year.

"The plans have only just been given the go-ahead, due to the traditional paranoia about Golems, but Jeremiah Leskey had only this to say. 'I really don't see what the fuss is about. Golems can be bought and ordered about by anyone who buys them - you don't have to be a rich pureblood with a manor, like with House Elves. They're great for manual work because they're strong, they don't need to eat, sleep or socialise, and they'll do whatever they're told. I guarantee they'll be the only thing to own within three years.'

"The factory will be finished in early next year, but it remains to be seen whether Leskey Incorporated will be making a killing - or whether Leskey Incorporated's production line will be killed."

"I don't see what all the fuss is about, with Golems." Hermione sniffed, slicing her ham. "They're not actually intelligent, so it would be a lot better to buy one of them than to have a House Elf."

Harry was confused. "What's a Golem?"

"It's a magical creature," Ron explained, lowering the newspaper. "They basically look like big, six-foot tall humans made out of stone or mud -"

"- Because that's what they are," pointed out Hermione.

Ron continued as though she hadn't interrupted. "They're hard to make, but once you have one bound to you, it'll do whatever you say. That's the problem with them; centuries ago, people used to order their Golems to kill their enemies, and they were used as really stupid assassins. So now, everyone's afraid of them; even though Leskey will be fitting all the Golems with spells to make sure they can't be ordered to hurt anyone."

"Of course, they're really expensive," Hermione added. "I think in all history there was only one person who ever had more than three, and he was a duke or something."

"Who didn't people just make them themselves, and have an entire army of them?" Harry wondered aloud.

"Because it takes a lot of power to make one, and even for those who could, there was a law that no-one could make more than two. The law was only changed a few years ago," Ron explained. "I mean, these Golems that are going to be made - well, they'll probably be made pretty cheaply, all you need nowadays is a mould and a lump of stone or mud. They'll probably be pretty expensive when they're in stores, though."

"Apparently, the cheapest - mud instead of stone, and less spells on it - will be about two-hundred Galleons; that's about five-hundred pounds," read Hermione thoughtfully, putting down the newspaper. "Well, I think this is pretty good. I mean, Golems aren't actually sentient and they don't tire out or anything, so maybe House Elves will have to do less work."

Ron rolled his eyes, and Harry quickly pretended to take a swig of his Pumpkin Juice. "But who would want a servant dripping mud everywhere?" joked Harry, "I can't imagine Lucius Malfoy putting up with it!"

"The mud ones are for outdoor work like building or gardening, and there's basic spells that dry the mud and make sure it won't fall apart." said Ron. He put his cutlery down, and got up. "All of the ones that work indoors would be stone. Tell you something though, Mum'd give her right arm to have one, once she finds out they're making 'em."

At nine o'clock that night, Harry made his way back to the disused classroom where he had first met Levina, glad that Filch was refusing to let Mrs Norris prowl the corridors after Trelawney's death.

Now, he had his questions drawn up - he knew exactly what he wanted to find out. Running them through his head to make sure he recalled them all, Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak and settled down to wait.

Firstly, he recollected, who Summoned the daemon? Secondly, what type of daemon is it? Thirdly, how did Merlin create an android when computers were thousands of years away from existing? What were the missing lines of the prophecy? What was the Eclipse? How did she know about the Room of Requirement? Who-

His thoughts were cut off when Levina tapped him on the shoulder. Unable to control himself, he gave a jump, swung round and glared at her. "Will you stop just appearing like that?" he hissed, "You almost gave me a heart attack! I mean, I'm scared enough with a daemon on the loose, you don't have to make it worse!"

Levina gave a lazy smirk, which annoyed Harry no end. "Sorry, your highness." she teased, then frowned. "Actually, you really are 'your highness' - you are the last remaining, direct descendant of King Merlin, after all."

Harry waved a hand, exasperated. "Then perhaps you could try to be a little more respectful, and stop scaring me? Okay, first of all, do you have any idea what type of daemon has been released?"

The woman sighed. "No, so we're going to have to do this by deduction. Do you know what types were in it?"

Harry nodded. "An Equus daemon - that's pretty young; an Aetas, a Saevus, two Volucris - and one that I can't remember, but it's made of air."

"A Cataegis?"

"Yeah, that's it." agreed Harry. "Which one do you think it was?"

"Well, we can eliminate the Cataegis, because it would be completely invisible, and I saw a glimpse of it when I was leaving." Levina mused. "The Saevus doesn't drink blood, it only eats flesh, so that's out... and the Aetas would have stopped time, and then devoured Malfoy when it hunted him last night, but since he had time to escape, it wasn't that. So that leaves either the Equus, or one of the two Volucris."

Harry nodded, storing the information away. "Okay. Next question; how did Merlin create you? I mean -"

"As I said yesterday, I'll tell you when you're older; or more specifically, when you're at the Techno-Magic Adept or Advanced levels, rather than Beginner or Intermediate. I'm not going to give you information you aren't ready for." Levina replied immediately. "Anything else?"

"How did you know about the Room of Requirement?"

She snorted at this. "Oh, honestly. I looked over the plans for the castle once I knew you were here - which I knew by tracing your laptop, by the way. I knew you'd be a Techno-Mage, so it was simple enough."

Ignoring the comment about her knowing he was a Techno-Mage for the moment, Harry continued. "What's the Eclipse? You said you had to prepare me for it, but you didn't say what it was."

"It's the test that's mentioned in the prophecy," she explained. "At the time of the ending of the test - the King of Serpents - there'll be an eclipse; it's been referred to as the 'Eclipse of Remembrance', because according to another prophecy - and no, you're not going to hear it unless I think you need to - the Eclipse will be in memory of the original fight that started it all, at the temple in Atlantis. Goddess know how, though; perhaps it will be on the same day, or in the same place, or something."

"But there are no more eclipses this year," Harry pointed out, but Levina just shrugged.

"Maybe it won't be this year, when it could just as well be next year, or the year after. Or maybe there will be; magic has a funny way of making unexpected things happen. Anyway, do you want to hear the final lines of the prophecy or not?"

"Of course!" Harry said immediately, sitting up straighter and making sure that he would remember it word for word. Levina settled down in her usual chair. "Now, with the rest of the prophecy, the fourth line rhymed with the second, and so on. But, in the last six lines, something went strange - every two lines rhymed. I think this was for a particular reason; that Merlin somehow knew these were to be the most important lines, and made them different to attract attention to them - unfortunately, they were lost, perhaps because of their difference to the rest: maybe people thought that it wasn't part of the original or something, I don't know.
"Anyway, these are the final lines;
But the Phoenix is more than even this;
A power of the gods and goddesses.
Chosen as an avatar
Of the serpentine and war -
Guided by the future that was created in past,
A divine power to forever last."

She recited it once more so that Harry could remember it all, after which Harry frowned. "What does it mean?"

Levina shrugged. "Presumably, the 'future that was created in the past' means you'll follow the lines of the prophecy - but as for the rest of the lines, I have no clue. Merlin passed away almost immediately after that, and the Royal pendant was given to his wife, Queen Rona, as she was to become the next ruler. Of course, the pendant had to be left behind when the Royal family fled Atlantis, but still..." She shook her head and returned to the subject.

"Anyway, Merlin didn't stick around long enough to explain the prophecy, or add any more onto it."

Harry put his chin in his hands, and gazed thoughtfully at the floor, not really seeing it. "Well, forgetting that for now - who is it that's Summoned the daemon?"

Levina's expression turned to a glare, though it didn't seem to be directed at Harry, or anything in the room.

"That idiot, Leone Nikastal!" she snapped, clenching the arms of the chair tightly. "Goddess knows what she's doing - that moron knows perfectly well about the dangers of daemons, and she even knows about the Dark - you do know she's descended from one of the Atlanteans who managed to escape? - and they'd love to get their hands on a daemon, without having to go through all the trouble of Summoning one themselves."

Seeing Harry's puzzled look, she elaborated. "One of the rules of the war is that no-one is allowed to Summon daemons to aid their side in any way. However, if an unaligned person; such as an idiot girl - decided to Summon one, and they can capture it and command it, that's fair play. As long as they weren't the ones who actually Summoned it, they can do what they like with it, whether it be sending it to kill our leader, gathering information, tracking the Phoenix, whatever. Of course, it wouldn't be any better if the Resistance managed to capture it, but at least they wouldn't send it out to attack innocents."

"But I thought they weren't allowed to hurt anyone who didn't know about the Dark?"

"No - but if they say that it got out of control, or that it was another daemon that someone had Summoned, who could prove otherwise?" Levina stretched her arms in front of her, and rose. "Half an hour till ten o'clock. You'd best get some sleep; you have Astronomy at midnight tonight, don't you?"

Harry followed her lead, but paused. "But why would Leone want to Summon a daemon in the first place? I mean, she doesn't work for the Dark, does she?"

"How should I know?" the woman asked amused, raising an eyebrow. "I may have more information about this than you, but I don't know everything about it. Perhaps she decided to try some Forbidden magic, and it got out of hand. Perhaps she isn't even in control of the daemon. Perhaps she's gone mad. Perhaps she has some kind of ulterior motive. We could go on guessing all night, and tomorrow! No, if you're so insistent on stopping her and the daemon - and now that I've had a while to think about it, I admit it would be safer and better if they were stopped - then we don't have to consider why it's here; we just have to figure out how to beat it."

Harry's hopes flared. "You're going to help?"

Levina mock-sighed. "I suppose I'll have to," she joked. "Look, I was told to train you, and I doubt I can get away with it if the school's closed down, and you're sent home. If we could get rid of it - and I'll have to help you, because you can't do it on your own - then I can train you every weekend, or whenever. Besides, I suppose daemon hunting wound be pretty good training, hm?"

Harry grinned, feeling a lot better - if a little tired. "Thanks. Should I meet you here again?"

She shook her head. "No; I'll contact you in a while; for now, I need to sort out what I'm going to teach you, follow a few leads to figure out where Leone might be hiding the Cage, since I doubt she's stuck it in her trunk, that sort of thing. For now, go get some sleep; get to your dormitory by the Room of Requirement, then you won't be caught by the caretaker, the daemon, the ghosts, or whoever. You can make the Room appear by needing it, and wandering around for a while, or another way.

"Rap the space where the door appeared last time, and say 'Tonur amast carnaena'; it's an Atlantean spell to show magical objects or places, like the door."

After he'd said his goodbyes and left, Harry did as she said, stumbled into the dormitory, stroked Ajax, and fell into bed for a few hours, until he was awakened to go to Astronomy. It seemed that Ron assumed Harry had been researching in the library as he though he had the night before, because he didn't ask any questions.

Saturday sped by, with (Harry was disappointed to find) no message from Levina. As there were no more murders, security was beginning to be relaxed, and everyone was feeling sure that it was a one-off; someone with a grudge against the teacher perhaps, or someone trying to prove a point.

Harry was a little uneasy about this - with only two-thirds of the Aurors remaining, and half the Unspeakables (who were disguised as Aurors, but Professor Figg pulled him aside and pointed them out, in case Harry needed to talk to them about the Resistance or the Dark, in which case he wouldn't be able to talk to the normal Aurors), surely an attack would be coming?

Harry was certain that if he were a daemon, he'd happily wait an extra few days for food and have less chance of being killed, then attack immediately when security was tight, no-one asked for his opinion, and by the end of Saturday, only ten Aurors and two Unspeakables remained within school grounds.

On Sunday, while Ron finally thrashed Eric McMurphy in the semi-finals Chess tournament and Hermione started writing a pamphlet about why Golems should be used instead of House Elves (apparently she was going to give them out in Hogsmeade, though Harry couldn't see who would take them - except perhaps Leskey Incorporated, to help sales), Harry started learning some of the spells from the beginners section of Techno-Magic, and managed to successfully equip Ajax with a night-vision spell. He wasn't sure why he'd bothered; magpies weren't nocturnal; but at least it was practice.

On Monday morning in Magical Languages they continued learning Mermish, which Harry had found to be quite hard; not only did they have to learn both the above-water wail and the under-water speech, everything in the language meant something - whether it was the length, the pitch, the mouth shape, the tongue movement, or how much the eyelids were lowered when saying something.

Because of a speck of dust in his eyes, Harry got quite muddled, and instead of asking whether he was in a loch or a lake, somehow managed to demand a one-way trip to a Swedish sewage-treatment plant (Professor Clayton had hysterics at this, and had to be calmed down before he was able to explain to Harry exactly what he'd just said).

Defence fared better; the students were finishing off Equus daemons, and moving onto their third type, Saevus daemons, which as Levina had told Harry, only ate flesh, and was particularly fond of young children and babies, which had led to various unpleasant nicknames.

By the end of Mondays lessons, Harry still hadn't received a message from Levina, and was wishing he'd asked how long she'd thought it would take. Taking matters into his own hands, he kept a careful watch on Leone in lessons, noting that she was a pretty good actor - she looked just like any other of the Bulgarian students. He briefly considered asking Hermione to watch her when she was in the dormitory; the fifth-year Gryffindor girls did share a room after all; but decided against it, as he wasn't sure what reason he could give her.

At fifteen minutes past one on Tuesday afternoon, during a library session (it should have been Divination, but Dumbledore was still trying to get hold of a supply teacher; unsurprisingly, no-one had taken the job after the murder), Harry opened his textbook to find that somehow, Levina had managed to put a note inside.

Wondering how she had managed it when the book had been in his bag all day, Harry made sure no-one was looking, and began to read.

Harry, it said,

Meet me in the Room at the usual time. I've found out a few things that we need to discuss. Bring Ajax with you.

L

His curiosity piqued, Harry tore the note up and threw it in the bin. She had put a capital on Room, so she obviously meant the Room of Requirement - could she be starting his training tonight? But if that was so, why would she want him to bring Ajax? Shaking his head, Harry knuckled back down to his reading.

Slipping down the corridor that held the door, Harry stuck his hand out of the Cloak and rapped on the wall, reciting the spell words that Levina had told him. They sounded familiar, now that he thought about it... oh well.

Clasping Ajax in his other arm, he opened the door as it appeared and slipped inside, releasing the bird and pulling his Cloak off.

The Room was no longer a cupboard; it was a huge room, far bigger than the Great Hall (how on Earth could it fit here? Surely the Charms room was over in that corner), in shades of white and pale grey. The floor was white tile, with a light grey mat inset across the majority of the floor. In one of the far corners of the room, a large, oak cabinet stretched up to the ceiling.

Weapons that Harry recognised, and some that he didn't, hung on the walls or were lined up on stands - broadswords and spears, knuckle-dusters and staffs, daggers and bows, glaives and katanas, scythes and - he couldn't even name most of them. A huge spear, but headed with a intricately curved blade instead of a point, some kind of mallet like object, with a huge squared head and a short, stubby handle; he finally tore his eyes away, and looked at the rest of the room.

This was no less interesting. On the left hand wall, a pair of doors led off to an unknown place, and torches on the walls continued to flicker and splutter out golden-yellow light.

Harry was damned impressed.

"You won't be using all the weapons, so don't bother asking." Levina said sharply, but there was an amused hint to her voice as she stalked out from God-knows-where she'd been lurking.

Harry grinned. "You didn't make me jump that time."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "I must be losing my touch," she remarked coolly, as Ajax found a perch on top of a suit of armour that was carrying some kind of spiked ball and chain, that Harry vaguely remembered from one of Dudley's films - was it mediaeval? Roman? Something like that, anyway.

"As I said," Levina repeated, waving a hand in the direction of some of the weapons, "you won't be using all of them. For now, you're just going to be trained in the staff, sword and hand-to-hand combat, to prepare for most eventualities. If you get really good at them, you get to pick another weapon; until then, you're stuck with just them.

"Don't look so excited - you're not even going to be touching them tonight. You have Astronomy, and I don't want people to get suspicious about why you're so much more tired than everyone else; plus because of it, we wouldn't have much time for training anyway. I'm only going to keep you for a few minutes before you go back."

Harry's hopes fell. Not because of the weapons he'd be training with - he'd certainly prefer to start with the common skills before moving onto more exotic weaponry such as the ones that adorned the walls. Instead, he was disappointed that he wouldn't be training tonight, after his hopes had been raised so much.

"Tomorrow night, at the usual time." Levina promised, seeing his expression. "You need some sleep; you've been having some pretty late nights since you met me."

"Well, we haven't spoken in a good few days," Harry pointed out, but continued, "So, what have you found?"

"I knew that Leone had Summoned the daemon in the first place by the empathic signature around the school - Forbidden magic leaves a big magical stain, one that takes a good few months to disappear, though the knowledge of how to find specific signatures was 'lost' long ago; it's in Techno-Magic, and a few old spell books, but no-one uses it. I-"

"Is that how underage magic is detected?" Harry blurted out, and Levina didn't glare this time; perhaps because it was a good question, rather than a meaningless interruption.

"Similar, but not quite." Levina explained. "Underage magic is detected through a magical signature, which as each persons is unique, allows them to see whose magic created the spell. Unfortunately, although Forbidden magic does need actual magic, it only uses will-power, which leaves an empathic signature that can be traced to the mind, rather than a magical signature that can be traced to the body.

"Anyway, I detected the empathic signature and traced it to Leone, which is how I knew it was her. However, I managed to refine my search for the epicentre of the signature before it faded, and I managed to find the exact source. The daemon was Summoned in the Divination tower, where Leone must have left to go to dinner, so that she wouldn't be a suspect when the murder occurred, and the daemon must have lain in wait for Trelawney to enter.

"I managed to check the files of the Aurors here, and I found that something interesting had come up in your interview, something your friends hadn't noticed. The windows had been opened for a while since you'd found the body, though they usually were closed."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, puzzled at the significance of this.

"I mean," said Levina triumphantly, "that a daemon could hardly risk wandering down from the tower and into the main part of the castle, when it didn't know where everyone was - it were to get spotted, it knew the alarm would go out, and specialists would be called in to kill it. Therefore - it left by the window!"

Harry fidgeted uncomfortably. "Erm... all right, that is interesting... but how is that important?"

Now Levina really did glare. "It was either an Equus or Volucris daemon. Equus daemons can't crawl up walls. Volucris daemons can fly. Figure it out."

Harry's eyes widened. "So it was definitely a Volucris!"

"Either that, or it was suicidal." Levina sniped cattily. "Now the question is, what happened afterwards? It could be hiding out in a disused part of the school - it's certainly big enough. However, it hasn't eaten here in the past few days, so it must e eating somewhere. Which means..." she trailed off, leaving Harry to continue.

"It must be somewhere close by - close enough that it came in and risked hunting Malfoy." said Harry immediately. "So it must be somewhere on school grounds... not inside the actual school... somewhere with prey - the Forbidden Forest!"

"Where better than a Forbidden Forest for a Forbidden creature?" Levina nodded. "Now the question is; do we want to hunt down the daemon and kill it, which would be damned hard, not to mention dangerous and which would still leave Leone in charge of a Cage to Summon another daemon from - as well as the knowledge and experience to be more careful in the future - or, do we want to track down the Cage, fight the daemon; though we wouldn't have to kill it; trap it, and have all the evidence we need to get Leone locked up?"

"Second option," said Harry immediately.

"Good," Levina grinned. "But I'm going to have to borrow Ajax for a while - just leave everything to me, and meet me here tomorrow night."

Lunch the next day was a rather gloomy affair; rain was pouring down outside, and after History of Magic with the dull Professor Binns, and an unusually boring Transfiguration lesson (turn a quill into as many things beginning with 'b' as you can imagine - though there were some light-hearted moments, such as when Ron's flaming red hair caught the attention of Dean's newly Transfigured bull), the fifth-year Gryffindors were the most dismal of all.

Ravenclaw Quidditch practice had been cancelled due to the torrent, which had apparently flooded one of the dungeons when someone had left a window open (Snape was threatening expulsion to whoever had done it; probably due to this, no-one stepped forward to claim responsibility) and the lake was nearly bursting its banks.

Students skulked indoors for the free-time between lunch and the final lessons of the day, in the library, playing Exploding Snap, Chess, or Gobstones, trading Chocolate Frog cards (Ron finally got rid of his spare Agrippas, only to find to his dismay that he now had three Ptolemys) or, in the case of Fred and George, hiding from Filch, who was seeking revenge after Mrs Norris had somehow managed to become glue to the ceiling.

Harry couldn't manage to sneak away to his laptop to Chat or learn any new spells today, as Hermione and Ron stuck by him most of the time, though he wasn't too unhappy about this - he felt a little guilty about lying to them so much, and was only too happy to debate over the latest Quidditch news, and why Percy really bought a new suit; Ron suspected he was going to take Penelope Clearwater to a posh restaurant and propose, while Harry just thought he was trying to impress his superiors, now that he was second-in-charge.

COMC was inside once again - though due to the rain this time, rather than for safety reasons. Professor Grubbly-Planks finished up shock-bees, and now continued on to Chizfurples, which somehow escaped and got into Neville's wand, managing to eat part of the tip before anyone could catch them.

Leone continued to act perfectly innocently, showing no sign that she was, in fact, a psychopathic lunatic, and Harry almost considered shaking her by the shoulders and screaming 'Murderer! Murdereeerrrr!' before realising that if he did that, he would appear to be the psychopathic lunatic, which wouldn't be good for public relations.

By evening, the rain had barely eased, seeming quite content to make up for the unusual heat there had been recently. As the curfew passed, and the students returned to the dormitories, Ron looked pointedly at Harry.

"Are you coming, or should I not bother waiting?"

Harry winced inwardly at that. "I still need to do some more research," he told his friend, "but I know for certain it's a Volucris daemon, now."

Ron looked a little relieved. "They're the easiest to get rid of, right?"

"They're common, but they're not easy to get rid of." Harry said. "Especially if it's one of the stronger ones."

Ron sighed mournfully. "Well, every piece of information helps," he replied, and that was that.

Harry took his time getting to the Room of Requirement, now he knew that the daemon was more likely attempting to hunt down Acromantulas, than to be stalking Hogwarts' corridors, after it had been so unsuccessful the previous time. When he finally slipped into the room, Levina was already waiting for him, Ajax on her shoulder.

"Did you have any luck?" Harry asked, setting his Invisibility Cloak down by the door, and then noticed the scowl on her face. "I guess not," he answered himself, and pulled a face of sympathy. "Well, a couple of days search isn't likely to bring much up. I mean, she might have sent it by owl to outside the castle, or something."

"True," Levina relented. "but I'm still annoyed. Right now, though, we have to get started on your training. To begin with you'll learn the basic moves of the sword. You can try with different types and see which one suits you."

After showing Harry how to stand properly so that he could react faster, how to keep his balance, and how to hold some of the common types of swords, Levina walked around the edge of the room, selecting different swords from the walls and the racks. It vaguely reminded Harry of Mr Ollivanders' wand shop, and how the owner had pulled dozens of wands out for Harry to try.

When she had finished choosing, a line of swords lay on the floor in front of Harry. A broadsword that Harry recognised from some of his history books before he came to Hogwarts, a katana that Harry knew of from when Dudley was eight years old and had fallen deep and hard into a 'Ninja and Samurai are the coolest things ever!' phase (which meant giving examples of martial arts, which mainly consisted of thumping Harry).

The other swords Harry couldn't name; a shorter, slightly curved one, one similar to the broadsword, but narrower and more elegant, and a vicious looking one that couldn't be Muggle, because its blade had tiny, sharp spikes sticking out of it. Harry felt sick just thinking how much that would tear your insides.

"Don't go for the more attractive one, because you're going to make your own." Levina told him, whilst Ajax watched interestedly from a shelf holding twisted daggers.

Harry paused in disbelief. "Make one?"

The woman brought out her now familiar glare. "I never said this was going to be easy." she said coldly. "I never said you'd be an expert in a week, and take on an entire army by yourself. If you make a weapon yourself, before it's finished you can put a bit of your self into it - your soul, like a Familiar. That makes it even more powerful when you're the one wielding it, and it'll seem lighter to you and better balanced. If you try to put a bit of yourself into a weapon you haven't made, it won't work."

Seeing Harry's despairing look, her face softened. "I don't expect you to be trained in weapons making as well. I'll guide you through it, but you'll still have to make it - only when you've finished your training, though."

Harry felt a little more relieved at that. He had no idea how to make a sword, but if it wasn't for a long time yet, it didn't really matter. Looking back down at the swords, Harry quickly ruled out the spiked one. He wasn't into torture, thank you very much, and that was what the sword would do.

Taking the curved one in both hands, Harry felt its weight. It wasn't particularly heavy, and had a sharp edge, which whistled through the air. There wasn't much point in looking at the detail - the shade of the blade, or length of the hilt - if he wasn't going to keep it, anyway.

Although it was well balanced, Harry felt uncomfortable with its curved edge, and the idea of bringing it down, only to miss because the enemy had already slipped away from under its short length.

The katana was extremely elegant, and quite light; but although Harry knew it to be strong, the blade felt flimsy and thin, as though it would easily break. Although he knew that of course this wouldn't be the case, Harry still felt uneasy with it, and put it down almost immediately.

The broadsword was comfortable in his grip, heavy but well balanced, the blade thick and strong. It was a powerful sword, but slow, and had barely any agility; and to bring it down with its full strength would mean raising it high, and leaving himself unprotected.

Putting it in his thoughts as a possibility, Harry checked the final sword. This was lighter than the previous sword and slightly thinner, having more speed and agility to the strikes, though not quite as much power to it. It was as long as the broadsword, with good balance and a sturdy blade with sharp edges coming to a smooth, needle point.

Slashing it through the air a few inches, Harry grinned at the swish of the air running past it, as though the air itself were being sliced in half by the glinting metal.

"Chosen?" Levina asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

Harry nodded his confirmation, and Levina stepped forwards and bent down to collect the other swords up as though they weighed nothing, and put them back in their places in racks and along walls.

After this, the woman opened the cabinet in the corner of the room that Harry had seen when he first entered the Room as it was now, and took from it a sword far more beautiful than the ones Harry had to choose from. It was a broadsword, powerful-looking, but its blade had tiny, needle-like spines pointing out every inch from the edge, rather than all over the blade, like the one Harry had passed up.

The blade and spines were a rich violet, and the hilt was of a black-marble dragon's head, not unlike a Hungarian Horntail, its dark snarl revealing black fangs. The only thing of the dragon that wasn't black were its eyes - two pure white pearls, inset into the sockets - and several red rubies set into its fangs, looking like drops of shimmering blood, each a quarter of a centimetre high.

Forcing his suddenly dry mouth to swallow, Harry stared at the sword. Was this her own sword? Had she really made it herself? Feeling amazed that anyone could create such a beautiful weapon - one even more elaborate than Gryffindor's own sword - Harry felt a rush of excitement that Levina would be overseeing his own sword.

The red-haired woman stopped a few paces in front of Harry and ran her finger lightly down the front of the blade, along the flat purple rather than the spiny edge.

"Atlantis was famed for its exquisite magic, art and architecture," Levina said quietly, as though she were talking to the weapon she was holding. "There, many things were considered an art-form, and many strove to reach perfection, in arts such as map-drawing, or sword-making. Much of Atlantean sword art has been lost over the past thousands of years, and the only books that write of the secrets are stuck in great vaults beneath the ocean.

"I learned blacksmithy, weapon-making, and fighting from some of the finest experts in the subjects; as an ambassador, it was dangerous to travel abroad, in a time when pirates, thieves and dragons were so common, and I had to learn how to protect myself fast - so will you." she ended, finally looking at Harry.

Hermione sneaked into the Common Room almost silently, closing the portrait door behind her, before heading over to where Ron waited by the fireplace. "I went down to the library like Harry said he'd be, and he wasn't there," she said quietly but urgently. "You're right, Ron, he is lying to us."

Ron looked worried. "I just don't get it. Harry's been acting weird for ages now - he hallucinated some woman at the Quidditch game we went to, he refuses to tell us why Dumbledore talked to him, he did that Familiar spell without even telling us, Professor Figg's happy to tell him everything about what's happening in Trelawney's murder investigation, he knows there's a daemon practically before Figg does, and now he's sneaking off every night and lying to us about where he's going. But why?"

Hermione looked, if anything, more worried than her friend. "I don't know. Maybe it's something he can't tell us - you know, secret information or something - or maybe... oh, I don't know!" She threw herself down into the chair and frowned. "He barely even talks to us anymore! I don't think he's going Dark; not a chance of that happening anyway, not with what he thinks about You-Know-Who - but I can't figure out what's the matter."

"Well, it's obvious what we have to do then," Ron said immediately. "Just the same way we found out he was creating Ajax - next time he disappears at night, we follow him."

Hermione opened her mouth to disagree, but shut it as she realised that it would work. "Then he would have to tell us everything," she wondered aloud. "Okay then, Ron. Next time he goes, we follow."