Chapter 24: I thought summer was supposed to be a vacation!

"Hey Hermione, check this out." Harry said. They were deep in the bowels of Azkaban, where they had decided to set up their school. The aurors were still upstairs, but the two demons had commandeered a small room in the basement where the aurors didn't go. Harry was working on his talent, and seemed to have a breakthrough.

He concentrated hard for a second, and then flexed his hand. A marble sized ball of fire appeared, hovering inside his slightly flexed fingers. A moment later, Hermione watched the ball increase in size dramatically. It was the size of a bludger in the time it took her to blink.

"Whoa, Harry. That's amazing!" Hermione exclaimed. "How did you do that? It always takes you at least thirty seconds to make a ball the size of a softball. That's much bigger than a softball." She fixed him with a penetrating look. "We're stronger now, but it doesn't account for that dramatic change. What did you do?"

"Think about it for a minute, Hermione." Harry smirked. "I told you how I concentrate my anger and desire into a ball, and pull as much magic away from it as possible. The magic condenses in my hand, energized by the emotions that it was pulled from, creating a ball of fire." Harry found this part funny. "In order to create more fire, I kept stripping the magic out of my emotions to add to the fire, until it was big enough to use effectively. I was thinking, and it didn't make any sense to do that. Once the fire is started, any magic that it touches will make the fire grow as it eats the magical fuel. All I needed to do was to feed a ball of solid magic into the center of my fireball, and it would immediately increase in size, so that it could eat the magic. I tried it earlier, and it works. I was just coming to get you, when you came down."

"Well, that is an amazing trick, but the doors we've been setting up to transport the students…well, they have someone ringing the bell." Hermione said. "I checked, and it's the one in the south of France. I didn't check the door to see who it was. Should I?"

"I think, Hermione, that our most important student is arriving for his summer school class."

Remus Lupin was somewhat nervous. When he'd spoken to Dumbledore the day before, he found out that Harry had left the train at King's Cross, and proceeded to an unknown location. To say that the information was disturbing was a bit of an understatement, especially since the Order had taken great lengths to insure that Harry was watched closely, no matter where he went. Remus didn't get much sleep that night.

When he awoke, however, he was a bit less worried. He didn't know why, but he was fairly sure that nothing catastrophic had happened to Harry in the last two days. There was no evidence of anything bad, and no witnesses, so it couldn't really have been the Dark Lord. He was the kind of guy who would try to kill Harry in the most public way possible, especially after the Imperial Dragon Circle had made him look like such a fool for the past year.

When Remus got to the kitchen, he found a note.

It's time for school, Remus. Bring your curse to the south of France, and we will speak again. Make sure that you ring the bell.

Remus was re-reading the paper, when he felt the jerk behind his navel. He had to laugh at the distraction. The demon had purposely given him no idea where to go in the south of France, just so the portkey could activate before he set it down without thinking.

The thump that he made when he hit the ground was not good for Remus' ego. As he looked around, he noticed that he was in a small clearing, a little ways outside of a village. He didn't recognize it, but he did notice that there was a door here, the door to a very old castle, which was now in utter ruin. Taped crudely to the column that had once held a large wooden door, was a paper sign. It was the only thing out of the ordinary about the place, so Remus approached it, so he could see what the sign said.

He had to stare at the sign for a bit. It didn't make any sense at all. It was an outline of a bell, which reminded Remus of the pictures Harry might have drawn, if he had been so inclined, at about the age of five. Under the picture was an odd phrase. "Do you want to come in?" was all it said. Remus began to think that the portkey had taken him to the wrong place. He pulled the letter back out of his pocket, thinking that it might take him to another location, but it remained a simple letter this time. Worried by being stuck in the south of France, Remus flipped the letter over, and saw something new. There was a five-inch Imperial Dragon Circle insignia printed on the back. Remus had to laugh. It was a silly play ion words. Holding the paper with the insignia facing him, he placed it over top of the bell, so the dragon circle formed a ring around the bell. He heard a bell, very far away, but coming through the doorway. The doorway was silent for a few minutes, and he waited. Suddenly, the shadows made by the doorframe began to darken and change. A figure rose slowly from the shadow, and walked up to Remus.

"Remus. I'm glad you came." The shadow figure said in an unrecognizable voice. It wasn't Flame's voice, or Blade's either. "Sorry about the voice thing. Sometimes it's difficult to keep my voice human. I don't think anyone else knows this, but demons have four sets of vocal chords. Turning off all but one is difficult for extended periods of time, and even more so for me. I am Flame."

Remus couldn't help but ask. "Why is it more difficult for you?" The smile could be heard on the reply, even though Flame's face was hidden.

"Because I have five sets."

That sort of ended the conversation, and Flame guided Remus through the portal.

It was a grueling day for Remus, and he was dead tired by the end, but there was no sleep for him yet. He had been given a small round ball, and instructions to give it to the leader of the Order of the Phoenix.

Flame took him easily to Hogsmeade, so it wouldn't be suspicious to Dumbledore. If Remus had appeared in the middle of Hogwarts, the wards would react to the new presence, and Dumbledore would wonder how Remus had gotten onto the property without triggering the wards earlier. That was dangerous, and Harry was being careful for a few more minutes. Remus knew his identity, and had agreed to keep it quiet until he made himself known to Dumbledore. Harry had a very special way that he wanted to do it, and Remus didn't feel that it was his place to spoil it. Besides, Remus thought, it was only for another hour or so.

As he approached the castle, Remus was suddenly overcome with his accomplishment of the day. With the help of his tutors, he had successfully seen his wolf form, which was something every werewolf wished he could do. Remus used to hate the beast that lived inside him, but now it was another story. To his mind, the wolf was now a living being, one with as much right to exist as he did himself. It was absolutely amazing what just one afternoon had done for him. He not only had seen himself for what he was, he found out that he didn't hate himself anymore either.

Remus had given the ball to Albus immediately, and an emergency order meeting was called. The members began arriving a few hours later, and the entire order was gathered by about eight o'clock in the evening.

"My friends," Dumbledore began, "we have gathered here tonight at the request of Remus Lupin. He has met the shadow masters, and would like to share some of his information with us. Remus, if you would?" Remus stood, and made his way slowly to the front of the hall.

"I had a very long discussion with Flame today, who is, contrary to what we've believed of late, not in hiding." The room was semi-surprised to hear this. It had been several months since the Shadow Master demons had been sighted, and it was generally assumed that they were hiding from the spotlight, so that they might continue their assassinations at a later time. "According to Flame, and confirmed by Blade, their purpose is fulfilled for the time being, so they have no reason to continue their killings."

"What was their purpose, Remus?" Asked Professor McGonagall. "I thought that a Shadow Master's only purpose is to kill." She reconsidered for a moment. "Well, and whatever other missions that their master gives them. Surely, if their purpose is served, then he would not keep them around?"

"I had that thought as well, Minerva." Remus said. "However, it seems that our demons were the result of a botched ritual." Gasps and chatter was heard from around the room, so Remus waited for silence. He continued when he got it. "Furthermore, Flame informs me that it was not a true summoning, but a calling ritual." Remus paused dramatically here, and noted that everyone was on the edge of his or her seats. "A botched calling ritual, by none other than Lord Voldemort." Everyone jumped back so hard that a few of the seats were knocked over, and a few of the more timid Order members wound up with nasty bruises on the backs of their heads. "I was given a viewing marble by Flame. He said that it would explain most of his situation, and solve many of our problems."

Albus dug the ball out of one of his pockets, and held it up to the light. The ball immediately took on a purple glow, and floated into the middle of the room. A laser-thin beam of light was shot from the ball, and spread out along the wall, until it made a small movie screen. Images began to emerge, and sound filled the hall. Everyone watched in horrid fascination as Voldemort captured Harry Potter, and killed him. Then they watched with growing horror as Harry Potter melted into shadow, and then returned as the Shadow Master called Flame. Professor McGonagall actually fainted when Blade was revealed as Hermione Granger, her prize student. The full presentation ended on a rather dramatic note with the death of Lord Voldemort. The ball stopped glowing, and fell to the floor, completely inert now. It was just a marble.

The hall was silent. Not even Albus Dumbledore could figure out what happened now. The Dark Lord was dead, but their savior was a known killer now. He was a member of the Imperial Dragon Circle, which was now known to the Ministry as a force of darkness to equal the Death Eaters, and the two deadly assassins were wanted as badly as Sirius Black was a few years earlier.

"This is an interesting development," Albus said. Remus thought he had a gift for understatement. "Remus, I would like to speak to Harry. I need to know how deeply he has fallen into the darkness. Perhaps there is some hope for him yet."

"Albus, this isn't Harry's fault." Remus objected. "He didn't fall into darkness. He was dunked. I got the whole story from him. The ritual that called the demons was performed almost seventeen years ago, before Harry was even born. He was possessed before he had any mental faculties to defend himself with. And the killing? You know as well as I do that a Shadow Master has to kill things. It's a compulsion, just like a werewolf always attacks humans. It doesn't matter whether we want to or not, and just like us, the Shadow Masters can't control their killer instincts."

Moody replied for the group. "It don't matter, Lupin. They're dangerous magical creatures, Shadow Masters. We need them under control, before someone else tries to control them. Since they contacted you, it becomes your job to lure them into a position that we can get them under our control."

Lupin didn't like the way Moody was referring to his best friend's son. "And how do you propose that I do that, Moody? You saw the marble. A killing curse from the Dark Lord's wand is guaranteed to kill anything that moves, but it didn't even slow down Harry. He's got more magical defense than we've got offense to throw at him, and he showed me physical strength that would terrify Hagrid. I've seen dragons that I'd call weak by comparison. How are we going to 'get him under control,' if we can't even touch him?"

"There are ways to control anything that comes from another plane, Lupin." Moody answered. "I know several rituals to bind wayward spirits to a caster. All you need to do is get them to us, and we can bind them back under our control."

Lupin had heard enough. "I can't believe that you'd be willing to take Harry's free will away from him, now that he's finally free of Voldemort." He growled, deep in his throat. The wolf agreed with him. He tossed his Order medallion down on the table. "I won't help you ruin his life, now that he finally has a chance to live one." He then pulled a medallion from his robes, one bearing the insignia of the Imperial Dragon Circle, and activated it. It was a portkey, and pulled him right back to the basement of Azkaban.

Dumbledore stirred. "That didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Severus," Albus said, "prepare the locatus potion to find Remus, please." Snape left the room, and Dumbledore regarded his audience. He could see that Remus had touched a few of them. "I do not relish trying to control Harry. However, if we do not bind the Shadow Masters to us, someone else will, and we cannot afford to take the chance that they will be better than Voldemort."