Mary was the first to wake in the morning.

She knew that this would make her immutably cranky for the rest of the day but, nonetheless, she could not get back to sleep. In the interest of not waking her sleeping companions, Mary decided to pass the time by exploring around the edge of their makeshift camp.

She stopped by a puddle of clear water for a moment, and tentatively raised her fingers above the water. A twisting, seemingly weightless stream of water followed her hand, amazingly suspended in midair.

After silently marveling at the sight (Mary was easily amused), she stepped beyond the boundaries of the clearing. Her friends remained asleep.

She walked silently for several minutes, traveling in a straight line so she could easily find her way back to her friends. She wondered why the forest was so completely silent – not even a birdcall! – and she didn't notice the shadow following her in the trees. She also didn't notice that she herself did not cast a shadow.

Casually pushing aside some ferns, she stopped dead, mortified.

In front of her was another clearing. This, however, was not a clearing like the one in which her friends were sleeping. This clearing was home to the entrance of a smoky cave, a large fire, and a human head on a stick.

Mary gasped very quietly, put her hand to her mouth, and silently turned, returning swiftly to camp to inform her friends. Her feet made no sound on the dirt floor of the forest. The pine trees rustled menacingly as she passed.

As she approached the camp, she could hear the sounds that meant two things: first, that her friends had awoken; second, that they had noticed her disappearance and were kind of freaking out. She couldn't help herself; she stopped momentarily, hidden behind some tall brush.

"Where IS she?" came Christian's worried voice.

"I'm sure she's fine," Sirius said. "I mean, she's like… Mary. You know, can never resist opening a door that says 'Authorized Personnel Only.' I'm sure she just got bored."

"WE NEED TO FIND HER!" came Liz's hysterical voice. This whole 'everyone is this close to death' thing had her pretty stressed out.

"Shh!" Aidan's voice came, clear and unconcerned. "Elizabeth, I can guarantee that there are things in this forest that you do not want to awaken."

"Well, where the hell is she? This is just like her, to go and wander off and get herself abducted or something!"

To this Christian replied, "Liz, you know she can take care of herself."

Aidan added, "I also thought you'd like to know that there is someone standing right behind that bush, watching you and listening to everything you say. Whether or not it is malevolent, I can not tell."

At this statement, the eight students went completely silent. Mary knew they were all looking at the bush Aidan had indicated, and probably deciding whether or not to kill the possibly malevolent someone. At this she stifled a giggle. Then she realized that if she came crashing out of the bush now, she would almost certainly die. She almost couldn't hold in her laughter.

She heard Liz say, "Fk."

And Sirius: "We're gonna die."

And Christian: "What if it's Mary?"

And Liz: "Well if it is, then why didn't she come out?"

And Remus: "Mary, if that's you, come out now. If it's not Mary, we're going to destroy you."

With this Mary stepped out of the bushes with a flourish. "Hello everyone," she said, brandishing a large branch like a sword. "Sorry I scared you."

Half of the students breathed a sigh of relief; however, Liz, Aidan, Remus and Allison continued to look at her suspiciously.

"How do we know it's Mary?" asked Aidan suspiciously.

"Exactly what I was thinking," said Allison.

"Ask her something only the real Mary would know," said Liz.

Remus supplied the question. "On the first day of term last year, what did you do that made me want to hex you?"

Mary laughed. "I dyed your hair bright green while you were sleeping. Then I wouldn't tell you how to get it out. You thought it was funny until I told you it was permanent. Then you told me that I was a terrible person. Then you felt bad, even though I thought it was hilarious, and you bought me flowers the next day and got over it. Then –"

Remus said, "OK! OK, enough!" The others were all snickering.

Mary saw a puddle that was reflecting the few stars that were out, and shrieked, "OMIGOD it's shiny!" and went over to it.

Thus they knew it was Mary, and all was well.

When they finally managed to drag Mary away from the "shiny," Liz asked her what had happened and why she was so stupid that she would go off in a forest alone in the middle of nowhere and just leave them there to worry and freak out about where she was and what if you had gotten raped?

"You were all sleeping, and I got bored."

Christian rolled her eyes, because it was so Mary.

"Well, you do have a compulsive need to defy authority," said Allison, quoting something that a teacher had once told Mary. "I don't suppose you saw anything of interest?"

"Actually…" said Mary, and she related to them the whole story.

When she was done, eight horrified faces stared back at her.

"A human head?" asked Sirius. "Like, with all the entrails and rubbish?"

Mary looked at him. "Yes. And rubbish."

"Did it have hair?" Liz asked.

"Yeah," Mary answered, "so we know we're not anywhere near that stupid fat idiot who tried to have us killed by gits running round in their knickers."

"They were loincloths," said Christian.

"Well, it's the same thing!"

"What I don't understand," said Remus, "is why he would try to kill us if we were the chosen or whatever. I mean, he sounded all excited about it, like we were going to save his country."

"His troops could have been following the orders of a different, unauthorized commander," said Mary, sounding extraordinarily like a general.

While everyone paused to consider this, a deep black shadow glided closer to their camp. It circled around the clearing without stopping.

Meanwhile, Mary had wandered over to Pandora's Box, which was lying a few feet away. She opened it, procured the little piece of parchment with the strange writing that Allison could not read, and wondered.

The silent black shadow had stopped, and was waiting on the edge of the clearing. Had Mary known it was there, she could have reached out and touched it.

Her eyes traveled over the parchment for a few more seconds, and then her eyes lit up.

"EUREKA!" she shrieked. "I'VE GOT IT, I SOLVED IT, I KNOW WHAT IT SAYS!"

Everyone looked over. "What?" came eight weary voices.

"I KNOW WHAT THE PARCHMENT SAYS!" she continued gleefully. There was a short pause, until Sirius asked, "Well, what?"

Mary cleared her throat and began:

"I am your weapon;

Open only when the time is right,

Or be destroyed."

There was more silence at this ominous statement. Then –

"How did you figure it out?" from Christian.

"Well," Mary explained, "I was holding the paper upside down because… well, I don't really know why, but the point is, if you read it backwards it's just English!"

Allison said thoughtfully, "That's why I couldn't read it, then. It's not even a real language."

No one had stopped to think about the actual meaning until Liz piped up, "What the hell is our weapon? A Box? That's not gonna help much."

"Well, it obviously has some sort of supernatural power," said Aidan arrogantly.

"Obviously," said Mary in a mocking tone. When he glared at her, she said, "You wanna fight, punk?"

He ignored her and continued. "Our best hope is finding out what that power might be, and why we need it."

Behind him, Mary continued to make faces.

Suddenly a deep black shadow covered Aidan. "Stop it, Mary," he complained.

"I'm not doing anything," she said truthfully. "Where's that shadow coming from? It's too dusky in these woods to cast shadows…" With this statement came the realization that this could be nothing good.

There was a moment of complete stillness, and then everyone moved at once.

"WHERE IS IT?" Christian screamed, while everyone else ran frantically around, trying to see what was going on.

In one swift movement, a shadowy tendril had wreathed Christian's 'face' in deep black smoke. She passed out immediately. This was noticed by everyone present, and only upon looking behind her did the students realize what was holding her.

A huge black demon – substance nothing but a shadowy film – was enveloping Christian within itself, it eyes the only feature on its great black expanse. The eyes were two deep pits of fire, and one felt that he could see the depths of Hell itself when he looked in them.

And this was the thing that was attacking them. So that pretty much sucked.

"DO SOMETHING!" Allison shouted, or maybe it wasn't her, but she couldn't be sure, shoe couldn't tell, there was so much chaos in that small clearing.

And then a few events happened in quick succession.

Sirius had a premonition.

Remus caused a high wind to spring up, blowing everything and everyone around.

Peter … yeah.

Liz, because of her ability to see in the dark, saw through the creature's 7-foot-high exterior right into its inky black perversion of a soul.

A tree fell down, crashing directly on the demon's head. This was due to Remus's wind.

Mary summoned all the water to her she could, and wrapped water around the creature so that it was bound in shimmering, twisting aqua ropes.

And James used his mind-invasive technique to persuade the demon to drop Christian.

And everything stopped.

Christian slid out of the creature's grasp onto the forest floor. She did not stir. Liz, Allison and Mary carried her over to a corner of the clearing, and then returned to face the demon.

It spoke to them, a deep, harsh, guttural noise. "Let me go."

"No." It was Liz who spoke. "No, we will not." And she spoke its true name, which she had found when she saw inside of it, and it was forced to succumb to her will, and the will of those around her.

"Tell us," Allison commanded, "Tell us who you are and what you have done."

The demon was unable to resist, since its true name had been spoken. And so it answered, "My name in the Common Tongue is Avarice. I was coming to spread my influence in Noæh. I had not been previously able to reach it."

"Continue."

The demon sighed, and it was the sound of a tree crashing in the forest. "I infiltrated Bythaes. He was ridiculously easy to manipulate. I knew you Nine would be coming. I knew you would fight against me. It was in the Prophecies. So I tried to kill you. Or, rather, Bythaes did, under my… persuasion." It laughed, and it was the sound of a house burning down.

"And the head on a stick?"

"I possessed the hermit who lived in that cave. I made him tell me if any strangers entered the wood. After I was done with him I disposed of him." It struggled uselessly against its watery bonds.

"How can we destroy you?"

It laughed again, and it was the sound of a chainsaw cutting into the sinews of an innocent's throat. "I cannot be destroyed. Only contained. And eventually, I will escape. I always escape."

"Well," said James, getting impatient, "how can we 'contain' you, then?"

When this question was asked, Avarice struggled visibly against his chains. This seemed to be the single question he did not want to answer.

Mary stepped up and commanded, "ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

The demon looked at her, surprised and a little frightened. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"No. NOW ANSWER!" At this direct command, the demon couldn't not answer.

"You can not order me to return to the Box. You have almost no power over it. You do have the Box, I see." It laughed again, and the students thought they could hear the screams of men and women being burned alive. "After Hope escaped, she shut the Box. A very tiny piece of Jealousy was caught in it, and there is has remained ever since."

"How may we find it?"

"It lies there, on the interior."

Mary looked at the Box, for she was the one holding it. "You mean this little paint stain?" she asked, pointing.

The demon smiled horribly and said, "That is not paint. But yes. That is Jealousy. Only he can contain me. He will drag me into the Box with him, because he goes out of his way to make others miserable, even if it means harm to himself." It stopped smiling and said, "Now you think you will release him so that he takes me in."

Sirius said, "Yes. Shut up."

The demon looked at him, and Sirius shivered a little bit.

"Well," it said smugly, "the only way you might do that is to learn Jealousy's true name, as you have learned mine. And that should not be too easy." He obviously thought he had some sort of leverage over them, but he did not realize that it would be quite simple.

Turning away from the demon, Allison spoke. She spoke it the disgusting, abrasive tongue of demons, even though it burned her throat and nose and made her eyes water. She summoned Jealousy, and a green, shapeshifting smoky form drifted out. It was much smaller than Avarice, perhaps the size of her head. Mary did not bind it; she knew that their mission could not be completed if the demon were not free to move. Rather, they would bind it with words.

"We demand your services," said Allison in the same burning language.

Jealousy did not answer immediately; rather, it looked slowly round the clearing, and saw Avarice. "So this is where you have been, my comrade," it said in a strange, dry, crackling voice. "Bound up here, in the Universe… at least you, unlike I, were able to feel the breath of wind on your back… that is not fair, my greedy friend, and I will make it just…"

"You will return to the Box," said Liz.

Jealousy nodded its green head, which it had just formed out of smoke. "I have accepted that as my eternal fate… I, however, shall not be returning alone… I will take this one with me…" And with that, it streaked across the clearing to Avarice, who, with a sudden burst of fury, broke free of his bonds.

"You cannot control me any longer!" it shouted. "I WILL NOT RETURN TO THE BOX!" But Jealousy caught him, and so began an almost-but-not-quite-epic battle.

At this moment, several events happened simultaneously.

Remus caused a wind to blow the demons closer to the Box, which was lying open on the ground.

Liz saw into Jealousy, and discovered its true name.

Mary caused a glistening dome of water to form around the clearing so that the demons' fight would be confined to the clearing.

Peter… yeah.

Sirius had another premonition, and, realizing that this wasn't helping, began to throw things at the struggling demons.

James achieved subtlety, and minute by minute – second by second – he moved the demons a little bit closer to the Box.

Aidan, invisible, dragged Christian to a spot where she was in less danger. He then left her side to help Sirius. Because of his invisibility, he was able to get closer and therefore inflict more damage.

Christian woke up, but was immediately hit in the head by one of Sirius's projectile missiles, and she passed out again.

Allison screamed in the demon language, "RETURN NOW TO THAT WHENCE YOU CAME!" over the howling wind that had just begun to blow.

James, who could (conveniently) understand this statement because of the influence he was exerting over the demons (the whole mind-connection thing), shouted "WHO SAYS 'WHENCE'?" but no one heard him.

At Allison's words, there was a blinding flash of light and a beam of – well, they weren't really sure what it was – a complete blackness – the opposite of light, it seemed – shot out of the box and pinpointed itself on the tussling demons. It expanded to envelop the demons wholly in itself, and for a moment, there was no sound at all.

Then, suddenly, there was a BOOMY SOUND and noise returned even louder than it had been, nearly causing the students' ears to bleed.

With a last, dying scream of rage, the demons were sucked into the box Jumanji-style and it closed with a neat snap.

And then there was silence.

"That was quick," remarked Sirius after a couple of minutes.

The students were dirty and beat up and shaky and breathless, and they wanted to go home, and they weren't even sure what had just happened, and Christian was unconscious, and they smelled like death. Yes, death. Not like decaying bodies. Like death.

Very slowly, Mary unraveled her web of water. Her whole body ached, and she just wanted to sleep. Mary had this in common with every other person there save Christian, who couldn't exactly feel emotion seeing as she was knocked out. Which reminded Liz that Christian was knocked out, and she beckoned Mary and Allison to help her make Christian alive.

"Is she dead?" asked Allison quietly, so that the others could not hear.

"She's not dead," answered Liz. "She's only mostly dead."

"And," Mary contributed, "there is a significant difference between mostly dead and all dead."

"Well," Allison inquired, "how can we make her alive?"

"I know how," said Mary with her trademark evil smile. She leaned down and whispered, "Christian. Christian, look, it's our German teacher!"

At these words, Christian sat up so quickly that she smacked her face off Liz's, because Liz was holding up a mirror to Christian's nose to see if she was still alive.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Christian shrieked. "WHERE? HIDE!"

Their German teacher was exceptionally creepy. Or, as the Germans say, he was a Kletterpflanze. (Yes, that is a real word.)

Liz and Allison and Mary were laughing at Christian, who then realized that they were lying, But she was grateful to them for making her alive, so she didn't complain. She just sighed in relief.

"I wanna go home," James wailed suddenly.

"Well, we have no means of doing that, so you may as well let that idea go," snapped Aidan.

There was a moment of silence while the nine digested the fact that they were going to die in the middle of freaking nowhere.

"Wait!" said Sirius unexpectedly. "I think I know what to do!"

"This is bound to be stupid," said Remus, "but go ahead."

"I had a premonition," said Sirius. "OK, you know that, like, hermit chap in the woods that the great smoky git was telling us about?"

Nods. Nods all around.

"Well, we have to go there," explained Sirius. "To his cave."

"Why?"

"Because I saw it," said Sirius as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, rolling his eyes. "We just do."

"I vote that we don't," said Aidan at once.

"I vote that we do," said Mary immediately after him.

"I second," said Christian.

"We have no better plan. I third," added Remus.

"Let's put it to a vote. All in favor of going raise your hand," said Mary. Everyone except Aidan raised his or her hand. Aidan is annoying.

"Mary, you found it before," said Sirius, looking pleased that he had actually helped. "Lead the way, Sergeant. Oh yeah, and I had another premonition after that. I saw us in Hogwarts!"

"Hogwarts? Are you sure?"

He nodded excitedly, and this improved the morale of the troops more than you could ever know.

Future Events: Back to Hogwarts? We shall see…

Also, an interesting conversation about pants.

I love torturing my characters.