Chapter 5: The Flammable Man

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any money from writing this. It is merely for my own entertainment. Harry Potter is the sole property of Warner Brothers and J.K Rowling.

Trigger Warning for this chapter: That graphic description of violence thing really kicks in here, so be warned

"Playing puppet master over the course of eons never bores. Every soul is different. Therefore, no two sleights of hand, no two bits of trickery are exactly the same. The sweetest of them come about as I deal with those arrogant enough to believe they're manipulating me... when I invented the concept."

- Mephisto

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

"Stupefy!"

The red jet of light that shot out of her wand dissipated against the demons skin. It turned to her, snarling and full of rage. Johnny was out cold in the corner, and the barman had ran off when the first punch was thrown.

"Bombarda!"

That certainly got it moving towards her. Good. Get it away from Johnny. It staggered too, which meant that spell was a winner. Couldn't use it too much in here though, she'd bring the entire pub down. And there was a loud incessant ringing in her ears now. Not as good.

"C'mon, ugly, let's dance a little, yeah?"

"How dare you!? I'll turn your skin into a rug, mortal!"

It flew at her, and Tonks' auror training kicked in. She rolled quickly to the right, sending another exploding charm its way. It landed, making the demon crash into a wooden table to its right.

By the time she had collected herself again, the demon looked ready to attack. A skeletal hand grabbed at its right wing, just as it was about to pounce. The sound and sight of flesh being ripped off of the body was not something Tonks was going to forget anytime soon. The wing was torn clean off, and the demon howled in pain before dropping to the ground. Behind it, stood a skeleton decked out in the same clothes Johnny was wearing, its head ablaze. It was Johnny.

She kept her wand out, but not pointed at him. Tonks certainly didn't want to fight that.

"No!" It screamed, trying to clutch at its back. "How did you -" Another scream as the other wing was removed. The floor was drenched in blood.

It tried to get up, but Johnny caught it by the throat and lifted it off its feet.

"Wait!" Spitfire shouted, the malice and rage gone, replaced by fear. Johnny did not listen. "I-I can offer you information! I am in close contact with Blackheart and the Death Eaters! Please, do not kill me! I'd only be sent back to Mephisto's realm, and his punishment will be far more severe!"

At this, Johnny finally stopped, but made no move to release the demon. He tilted his head slightly at it.

"There is a place, a warehouse where more of my kind are stationed, with a Death Eater to oversee our operations. I-I can take you there!"

"So we can be ambushed by a dozen of your buddies?" Tonks exclaimed incredulously. There was absolutely no way anybody sane would agree to something so obviously a trap as that.

"No! I swear they would have no idea! It would be a perfect opportunity for you to wipe them out! Just please, don't send me back!"

And then, with a deep and gravelly voice, Johnny spoke.

"Where is this place?"

It creeped her out immensely.

Spitfire's eyes widened even further, not believing its luck.

"It's in Leeds, a Kent Foods warehouse on Old Run road."

"I know the area, that's in Hunslet, isn't it?"

The demon nodded shakily. "Yes."

"You're not thinking of taking us there right now, are you?" She asked Johnny, worry quickly rising up within her.

He didn't answer.

"No, no, no! We need to tell the rest of the Order, you know that, Johnny!"

"Johnny isn't in control right now. I will do what I please."

Chains came out of the sleeves of his jacket, wrapping themselves around the demon. There was a sizzling noise as the chains burned into Spitfire's skin.

"The more you struggle, the hotter they'll burn."

He dragged Spitfire outside, and Tonks was at a loss. She didn't want to fight it, but what could she do? What even should she do? Outside, was Sirius' bike, which was definitely not there before. He put Spitfire on the bike, and the chains wrapped around his waist when he sat down on it. The bike roared to life so loudly that Tonks' ears popped.

The wheels and engine burst into flame, but the bike looked to be unharmed. It sped off, and far down the street Tonks saw a sort of portal open up and then they disappeared.

"Bollocks."

Alarms blared in her ears, and loud footsteps coming down a flight of stairs.

"Oi, Moody! Johnny's lost control and he's heading to a warehouse chock full of undesirables on Old Run road in Hunslet, Leeds!"

She apparated around Britain, letting every major order member know about what was going down. Back to Grimmauld to notify Molly and Arthur, Kingsley's house, Remus', sent a patronus to Dumbledore, even. But she couldn't stick around long enough to know if any of them heard her. Tonks hoped that at least Mad-Eye had, but with his bloody security wards, it wasn't a guarantee.

Finally, she went to the Kent Foods warehouse. It wasn't as big as she imagined. The huge entrance door, that seemed to be for large muggle vehicles was torn apart and in some parts, melted. Sirius' bike was dormant just outside, looking completely normal.

There were some scorch marks at the entrance, black streaks going inside. Tonks took out her wand and walked in cautiously.

"Homenum Revelio." She murmured. Three people, even though Spitfire promised many more. When Tonks entered, it became clear to her that 'people', was a loose term.

Johnny was there, she could see the back of his skull. Spitfire was still chained up and laying on the floor behind him. The third person was a man she didn't recognize, though that wasn't very surprising. Pale, almost grey skin, jet black hair was a mess, and he had a fancy looking suit on. Johnny had him by the throat.

The smell hit her then. Blood, lots of it. There were bodies strewn about the place, Tonks had no idea how she hadn't seen them when she walked in. There was almost no place on the floor that wasn't covered in blood and human body parts. Men, or what used to be men were melted, bone mixing in with skin in ways she never thought possible. Men caught mid scream, faces contorted in unimaginable pain.

"This... doesn't... change... anything." The man choked out, two incredibly sharp looking canine teeth. His eyes widened, before Johnny suddenly dropped him. He laid there, unmoving. Dead.

Spitfire was next, tried to beg, it didn't work.

"I-I gave you what you wanted! Everything! You-you've crippled a small portion of their organization! Stopped an expansion into the mortal world! Please! Plea-!"

All its shaking and squirming, the chains got tighter and tighter, until it burned the demon to a crisp, and its pleas for its life were cut short.

The skeleton looked at her then, as if assessing if she were a threat or not. Head tilting left and right. Sizing her up.

Tonks' wand was still out, but she wasn't going to fire, not if she valued her life.

And then its head shook, an intense twitch. The orange flame withered to a smoky black. Patches of skin were reforming on the skull, from where, she did not know. Slowly but surely, Johnny was returning. When he was finally complete, he immediately collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily. Johnny looked fine, but exhausted.

"I... I don't know what's happening to me. This isn't how it's supposed to work."

Tonks walked towards him, about to help him up and offer comfort, when her eyes caught sight of a familiar form.

Blonde hair marred by the colour crimson, a brutal looking face emphasized even more now.

"Bloody hell, Johnny..." She whispered, hardly able to believe it. "You killed Corban Yaxley."

The dining room of Grimmauld Place was nearly filled with Order members when they returned. Johnny entered uneasily, ignoring the stares as best he could. Dumbledore looked grave when they locked eyes.

"Tonight has been quite the night," he said, "Johnathan, can you tell us what happened?"

"I was doing what you asked, after we left the train station." Johnny began. "Getting information and finding leads on what the demons were up to here."

"And you succeeded this quickly?" Dumbledore asked, leaning forward in his seat at the head of the table.

This would be the perfect time for a wry grin, something to make him look cool, but Johnny could only muster a slow nod. "I came back here looking for Mundungus after learning something I thought could pan out. I only found Tonks, and she said she knew where he might be. We went to a place called the Hog's Head."

"You went to a wizarding village?" Molly said incredulously, dressed in a baby blue nightgown. "So close to Hogwarts too..."

"We found him," Johnny continued, "led us to a demon in disguise. I wasn't thinking, just confronted it. I transformed without meaning to. It's like I'm a passenger in a car. I can see everything that's happening, but I have no control over it. Just left to watch as someone else drives."

"This has happened before, then?" Dumbledore asked.

Johnny nodded. "When I first... became like this, yeah. And when we were escorting Harry here, as you already know."

The suspense was palpable. Everyone was waiting for Johnny to keep going.

"We eventually got to a warehouse in Leeds, though I arrived before Tonks. I killed everyone there." He could not look Sirius in the face. "Tonks says one of them was a vampire, and the other, a Death Eater. Corban Yaxley."

"Yaxley's dead?" Arthur said disbelievingly.

"We knew he might try and reach out to the vampires," Remus spoke up, "and now we know, to some extent, a few have joined."

"Indeed," Dumbledore said.

The front door opened then, and Moody walked in.

"Made myself scarce once the auror's started showing up." He grunted. "Doubt they'll be able to tell it was me that gave them an anonymous tip. They'll most likely keep it under wraps if they can."

"Was Yaxley's body still there, Mad-Eye?" Tonks asked from Johnny's left.

The ex-auror's good eye turned to Tonks. "Yaxley? He was there? I suppose one of those burned bodies could be him, but there's really no way to tell."

"No," Tonks said, platinum curls swinging around as she shook her head. "You could still make out his face, I saw him myself."

Moody looked thoughtful at this. "Might've been removed then by another Death Eater. Maybe they're supposed to check in on him at a set time. Likely got there and pissed themselves."

"That would explain why Snape isn't here," Remus added, "Voldemort must know about it, and Alastor's probably right on the mark."

"A theory for another time," Dumbledore said, "we'll know for certain as soon as Severus can return to me. Now, Johnathan, I believe it is time you tell us a bit more about your... affliction. Being caught flatfooted like this is not something I would like to repeat if I can help it."

He shook his head in annoyance. "I used to be able to transform at will. Only in the beginning did I not have control. I think it has something to do with being near evil." Johnny would absolutely not elaborate further.

"I don't see why any of this matters," Moody grunted, "he killed Yaxley, and dealt a blow to Voldemort. That's good enough for me." Mad-Eye's sudden change in attitude towards him was shocking, to say the least.

"It matters," Dumbledore sighed, "because causing mass destruction like this is a good way to get the Ministry on our backs. What if the next time you lose control, Johnny, it's even worse?"

A rage bubbled up within him. "You asked me to be apart of this, knowing full well what I was capable of. I'm sorry I can't control it right now, that wasn't supposed to happen, but isn't this a good thing? From how Tonks and Moody put it, Yaxley was high up in Voldemort's forces, did I not just do you a favor?"

"Your objective was to gain information, and notify us immediately of anything big. You did not do the latter, and as for the former, learning that Voldemort had at least one vampire amongst his ranks, is hardly valuable information."

The old man was right, but that didn't stop Johnny. "I'm here to wipe out the demons. I've been all over Europe, and now the largest number of them have congregated here in Britain. Our goals align right now, but don't think for one fucking second that I care about your war. Once I'm done here, I'm going straight back to New York, whether you've won or not."

"And I would not think any less of you for it," Dumbledore said placatingly, "however, I would ask that while you are working with us, to at least listen and cooperate."

They both looked at each other then, both men having said what they had to. Johnny glared while Dumbledore just looked a little disappointed. He hated that look. Reminded him too much of the look on his mother's face whenever he'd arrive home with another suspension from school.

"Alright," he said evenly, "I'm sorry, I'll do better next time."

Dumbledore nodded, apparently satisfied. "Excellent. Let us reconvene at another date, sometime preferably soon. Thanks to a close contact in the Ministry, I have learned that Sturgis has been arrested. We will need to discuss a replacement for his shifts as we figure out a way to avoid Azkaban for him."

Johnny blew out a relieved breath as everyone left. Tonks squeezed his hand before heading to the guest room. Sirius avoided his eye. Johnny caught his arm.

"That wasn't me, you know. I-I don't like that this happens. If I could get out of it, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Sirius nodded, but didn't say anything, and went to his room.

Johnny felt miserable.

Half of them didn't trust him before, and now it seemed as if the only person who still did was Tonks. And it was blatantly obvious she was afraid of him. His words from earlier were partly untrue as well. He didn't really care about the war, however, if this Blackheart was truly working with Voldemort, and it had the full support of the demons from Mephisto's realm, it could mean trouble. Hell, it already did mean trouble. Why couldn't he escape this? Everywhere he went, his past wouldn't leave him alone. And now, in a foreign place, it threatened to tear everything he had down.

Johnny had been careful to keep his identity secret before, to do this last thing and then move somewhere secluded, where he wouldn't ever need to transform. But now, he couldn't even control it, and that meant, at least for the time being, he needed to see this through. So as much as he wanted to leave after wiping out the demons, he'd have to stay.

The days that followed were not good for him.

Sirius and Tonks treated him differently now. The two people he was closest with here, looked at him as if he were some cold blooded killer incapable of feeling.

It hurt more than it should have. He stopped caring about most people's opinions a long time ago.

Thankfully, Johnny didn't have to stay in the house all the time to deal with it. No, most of his free time now was spent out on the streets with various Order members. Mostly Moody, who was now very eager to talk strategy with him. Violent strategy. It was a surprise that he was even allowed back out. But Moody took great pleasure in letting him know that he was the only one with experience in the 'muggle criminal underworld', as he put it, and they were now partners of a sort.

Needless to say, he wasn't thrilled.

"Are warehouses common hideouts, then?"

Johnny shrugged, looking down at the street. They were set up on top of a convenience store, disillusioned, so nobody could see them, as Moody put it. "Depends on the area, I guess. Docks, if a city has one, rundown apartment complexes, underground areas. If they're run by people, or demons pretending to be people, it'd be good to have records of the transactions. If anything had been bought or sold recently. That's mostly for white collar stuff though. For what we're looking for, you just gotta know who's beefing with who."

" 'Beefing' ?" Moody's voice asked out of thin air somewhere to his right.

Right. Wizard. Unfamiliar with human terms.

"Who's against who. Gang stuff, I guess. Though I won't be that much help here, the only one I can think of is the local chapter of the Dogs of Hell."

"And you've already exhausted all your options there," he stated.

"More or less," Johnny agreed.

"So what's our next move?"

"Wait until something happens, I guess."

Funnily enough, Moody didn't seem very happy about that.

"Welcome to your first Transfiguration class of the year. Now, I trust everyone present knows that O.W.L.S are this year, and that means, this will be one of, if not the most difficult terms for you here at Hogwarts. I, as well as your other professors, I'm sure, expect a great deal from you all."

Professor McGonagall eyed Harry for the briefest of moments.

"This year is going to be quite different, and I do not mean just the difficulty of the curriculum. Most of the work we will be assigning you, especially in this class, will be done in pairs. Obviously, in some classes, there will be exceptions. History, divination, charms and," a minute look of disapproval overtook her face just then, before becoming more professional, "defence against the dark arts even, to an extent, will still remain a solo venture. I will be assigning the partners, and they may or may not change over the course of the year."

There was scattered muttering amongst the class, mostly from the Slytherin's. McGonagall glared a little, and they immediately quieted.

"If you look at your desks, you will see a number burned into them in either red or green." She said, waving her wand in a sweeping motion across the classroom. "Gryffindor's, please memorize those numbers, and find a Slytherin with the same one."

No one dared argue, and while a few, and no doubt Harry as well, looked mutinous, they did as they were asked. A blazing red seven was magically carved into his desk, and Harry gathered his things, and left a wary looking Ron to find his partner.

A bored looking girl with short and curly sandy brown hair, it turned out, was to be said partner, as she had a matching green seven on her desk, closer to the front of the class. Her tie was a loosened a little, and skirt was shorter than others. Harry couldn't recall her name. When she looked up at him, he noticed the plethora of freckles along her nose and cheeks. Cerulean blue eyes met his own, but there was no surprise or shock on her face, just indifference.

"Mr. Potter, please take your seat next to Ms. Davis."

Well, he thought as he sat down, looking around the class to see who Hermione and Ron had been paired with, at least I know part of her name now.

He almost snickered when he saw Hermione sitting next to Crabbe, both of whom looking very cross. Ron looked downright scared though next to Parkinson, while she glared daggers at him and McGonagall.

"Let us begin with your first assignment. Please take out your textbooks, and flip to page twelve." McGonagall gave them a few moments to do so. "Excellent," she said, when everybody was once again waiting for further instruction, "You will use your ties, and try to transfigure them into a miniature wooden sculpture using the spell described in the book. You may begin."

There was little movement at first, as the pairs were still getting used to working with their hated house counterparts. Dean was with Goyle, Seamus with Nott, and Malfoy was paired off with Lavender.

"So..." He began slowly. "How do we start?"

Davis slowly turned towards him, still having the same bored expression. "I suspect with whatever the book says." Her voice was deeper than he expected.

"Right.." He muttered. "How silly of me."

And so they gave it a shot. Harry removed his tie while she did the same, albeit, with an air of laziness. The textbook said that when done together, one should be able to feel the magic of both people working in harmony.

Harry didn't feel that.

Instead, it was like pushing against something that was chained down and far too heavy. He could feel himself straining, brows furrowed focused entirely on making a little wooden lion. Davis still looked disinterested. But he could definitely feel her magic. There was no harmony, but her magic felt like it was calmly pushing against his own. Confident that it would eventually make it all work out.

By the end, they made something, alright. The first half was a lion, though a bit wonky and warped on his part. The other half, seemed to be in the shape of a snake, with intricately carved scales. It occurred to him then that they had not discussed what they wanted to turn their ties into.

McGonagall made a pass by their table. She looked at their amalgamation for a few moments, before looking at them both in turn. "Did it not occur to either of you to discuss what you wanted it to become?"

Harry was about to open his mouth to respond when Davis beat him to it.

"No, Professor." She said.

"And why not, Ms. Davis?"

"We weren't thinking as a team. Both of us just wanted to do it and get it over with."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Both of you?"

"Well, maybe just Potter," Davis conceded, "I don't mind either way."

"Perhaps you will mind an Acceptable, as that's the best I can give you for this." McGonagall said.

The tiniest frown came over Davis' face, before quickly disappearing and indifference took over.

"I understand, Professor."

The rest of the class was spent on theory, as well as reinforcing the necessity for teamwork, going forward.

"You will keep attempting this until I am satisfied with your work. Only then will you move onto more and more challenging assignments. You are dismissed."

When it was time for the next period, Davis gathered her things and left without sparing him a glance.

The rest of September passed more or less quietly. He and usually Moody would stake out different parts of London at night, to see if they could find any demon related activities. Sometimes these nights were eventful, most times they weren't.

Moody eventually grew past hating just waiting around for something to do, and now liked piecing together some of their sightings.

"If Ms. Chen from the store down the road owes money to Geoff and his boys, then it stands that Mr. Parker could too."

"He could," Johnny agreed, taking a bite of the sandwich Molly had made for him. Briefly imagining someone seeing pieces of a sandwich being eaten by nothing. "But that's small stuff, I don't see any of the demons doing that. We need to focus on bigger things, like shady deliveries down at the docks in Chelsea. Now that cop that Tonks confunded said they've been seeing some strange ships come in. Ones that aren't scheduled. But the guys at the dock take the cargo just fine, the only official report was by a nosy civilian."

Moody grunted in response. "Should we pop down there then? Keep a watch?"

"Sure," Johnny said, "we can do that."

"Alright then," Moody said, taking off his own disillusionment charm. "C'mere so I can apparate us."

Johnny walked forward and grabbed onto the old auror's arm. Moody twisted on the spot, and Johnny felt like he was being stretched and squished at the same time. Pushed through an impossibly small tube.

And suddenly it was over, and they were standing just outside a dock in Chelsea. Moody performed another disillusionment, and muttered, "this way."

The men there didn't see them, just went about their business. Most of them were burly looking, with wide chested builds and large arms. A few stood out though, going the opposite way with how skinny they were in comparison. They didn't do any of the heavy lifting.

A ship was pulling in, Johnny sidestepped one of the workers walking by.

"That don't look right," the man grunted.

"Looks normal to me, mate," another said, and Johnny turned.

He had a wand out, pointed at the unsuspecting other worker.

"Huh," the first one mumbled, "s'pose it does, yeah."

They were wizards. Confunding, or worse, placing the innocent men here under the Imperius to keep them from questioning anything. Moody had to have seen it too, but with so many people close by, they couldn't communicate.

The ship was docking now, and a sense of dread filled him.

No way to communicate with Moody, or alert anyone from the Order.

How do you always get in these situations, Johnny?

Men stepped off the ship, dressed in robes, and Johnny resisted the urge to start fighting. His chest began to burn uncomfortably.

He stepped forward, weaving through the new arrivals. If Moody was doing the same, he'd be slower than Johnny at it, so he waited by the entrance. The few shipping containers were stacked overhead on the ship, footsteps were coming his way, and Johnny made himself flush against the wall just in time as a large man with blonde hair walked by. A second later and they would have collided.

He waited. A minute, and then two. Voices were in conversation still, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Moody," he whispered harshly, "Moody, are you here?"

His heart skipped a beat, certain someone had overheard him. The voices went silent for a terrifying moment, and then resumed once more.

"Aye," a raspy voice answered, "I'm here. Let's head closer to the end of the ship and get one of these containers open, yeah?"

Johnny didn't answer, merely walked forward, very conscious of how loud his footsteps sounded.

They got to the end, and Moody spoke up again.

"Wait," he said, and all Johnny could do was just that.

"Magical detection spells, wards for blocking out apparation. As soon as I step foot into any of these containers, they'll know."

"Why do I sense a 'but', coming?"

"You can go in, Death Eaters are too arrogant, they would never expect a muggle to be able to get this far. Their wards shouldn't be able to pick you up."

"That's why the boat isn't warded in general," Johnny surmised, "they'd want to apparate in themselves and see who was here."

"Aye," Moody agreed.

He sighed. "If this doesn't work, they'll be on us in seconds. And you can apparate away, but I'll still be here, stuck like this forever if I even make it out."

"I won't leave, no matter what happens."

"Fine."

The small double doors of a red container opened with ease, proving Moody right about the Death Eater's arrogance.

Just under a dozen medium sized crates lined the walls. Johnny stepped in warily.

Nothing happened. No alarms, no dozens of men attacking. Nothing at all.

He popped one of the crates open, and found it to be filled to the brim with vials of a clear liquid. Similar to the one he was forced into taking when he first met the Order. Two more crates had the same contents. A fourth had vials with a dark purple colored liquid inside this time. Bags of what felt like a powder of some sort, a crate of wands of all sizes and woods, binocular looking objects. One of them even had a caged animal of some sort that growled as soon as he moved the top. Johnny wisely kept it closed.

So they were importing stuff in. Made sense. They at least had one other shipment delivered. Whether it had the same stuff or not, he had no idea.

Alright, time to leave and let Moody know so they could plan out their next move.

"I swear, Selwyn, one of my devices were tripped."

"Those muggle detection pieces you bought could just be getting messed up due to the magic in the area Rowle, if someone entered any of the container's we would know. And besides, we have no reason to suspect anyone knows at all?"

"Oh yeah?" The man, Rowle, asked mockingly. "Then those incidents at the warehouse in Leeds, and at the construction site with Snyde were just coincidences, yeah?"

There was no response to that.

"And look!" Rowle shouted, and he saw the incredibly large blonde man from before jog into view. "One of those containers is open! I knew it! Someone is here, right now!"

The burning sensation in his chest got stronger as Johnny's heart leapt into his throat. But he was in control.

They could try and sneak by, but Johnny had no idea where Moody was, and the two Death Eater's were blocking the only exits that wouldn't get him soaking wet.

"Who's here?" Rowle demanded. "Show yourself, and I promise we'll make it quick."

"Somehow," Johnny said from right in front of them, still invisible, "I don't believe you."

His skin melted away and his head burst into flames.

Alastor started moving as soon as he heard Johnny speak. He had no idea what the boy was planning, but he knew he needed to find a way to help anyway he could.

Johnny came into view now, his transformation breaking the invisibility spell.

He took two blasting curses to the chest, and all they did was make him pause for barely a moment.

"What the hell?!"

Any other time, Alastor would savour the fear, but right now, he decided to use their confusion to slip by them as they stepped forward to continue with a barrage of spells.

He heard one of them grunt as he went by, and soon after, a loud splash in the water below.

More men were running their way, and Alastor sent a powerful exploding charm at their feet, sending a few of them overboard. An even louder explosion sounded from behind him, and he finally turned around to look. The containers were being set ablaze and melting at speeds he did not think possible.

Faster than it should have been, Johnny was with him again.

"Johnny," Alastor shouted over the noise, "you in there?"

The skeletal head snapped towards him, and he felt as though those empty sockets were peering into his very soul.

It gave the tiniest inclination of its head.

"Change back then will you? We've done enough damage for tonight."

When they arrived back at Grimmauld Place, Johnny back to normal, he gave the boy a slap on the back and a laugh.

"Good on you, lad. We've just dealt the dark lord a significant blow."

It was only the beginning.