Disclaimer:I am making no money from this. Anything recognised from Harry Potter belongs to JKR and her affiliates. Anything from the various religions comes from them and probably belongs to them. Anything totally unrecognisable is the result of my warped imagination and perverted sense of justice. No animals, humans, demons, angels, gods, witches, wizards or giant squid were harmed in the writing of this work of fan-fiction.

Author's Note: The prints Tristan hung in his rooms are of real paintings and yes, you can buy prints of them.

Chapter 2; Angels from On High and Also Down Below

The first week passed quickly for both Tristan and his students. He continued to spend time with Minerva, but had increased his small circle to include Rolanda Hooch and Filius Flitwick. As much as he wanted to include Hagrid, he wasn't sure he could keep his mouth shut around his first ever friend. The half giant was one of the few people that he was honestly sorry to have left.

One thing that had become quite interesting over the week was the older Gryffindor and Slytherin students. He was very surprised to discover how few of the Gryffindor's seemed to care that one of their own had been killed. They mourned the Boy-Who-Lived and their star seeker, but Harry Potter seemed to have been lost in that. Slytherin likewise were gloating a lot less then he had anticipated and seemed unsure about how they should be responding more then anything else. When Nychta had suggested returning to Hogwarts, he had originally been against the idea, believing it would be too difficult to see his friends moving on without him. She had told him that he would only see the truth by facing it. He was beginning to understand what she had meant.

None of the students had so far working up the courage to ask about his face and Minerva had started a staff sweepstake on which year and house would be first. Tristan has surprised everyone by choosing his 1st year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw class. When he had explained that they had been the first to question his dislike of robes, he had given many of the more judgemental staff members something to think about. For himself, Tristan would rather the question didn't come up at all. He had no desire to answer questions about Lusa, but was realistic enough to realise how unlikely he was to make it the entire way through the year without her being found out. He just hoped no one would do something stupid. Besides, he missed her.

That was why Saturday morning found Tristan walking easily through the Forbidden Forest in search of his pet. Sighing in frustration as yet another trail suddenly ended for no apparent reason, he began to back track towards the last place he was sure he had been following Lusa's trail, only to find his way blocked by someone… or something.

"Hi Mickey. Have you seen Lusa?"

"Don't call me that." The man snapped, flicking his massive white wings in irritation, "And no, I haven't seen that hell spawn you call a pet."

Tristan blinked slowly, "Okay. Is there a reason you're in the Forbidden Forest, angel boy?"

'Mickey's' eyes flashed fire at the new nickname and then sneered, "You're Obsidian, boy. What are you doing on Earth?"

Tristan sighed and leaned against a nearby tree, "You remember the prophecy? The one that says I have to duke it out with Voldemort?"

"Harry Potter has to duke it out with Voldemort, yes, but you are Tristan Daimonas by your own choice."

"Are you trying to tell me that changing my name and having Lusa rip half my face off means that damned prophecy doesn't apply to me anymore?" disbelief tinged Tristan's voice and was visible on his face as he stepped towards the winged man.

Mickey began to snigger.

Suddenly realising that the angel had been taking the total piss out of him, Tristan growled at him, an action that had the unintended side effect of sending the other being to the ground in gales of laughter.

Tristan sighed and returned to his place against the tree, waiting for the angel to regain his composure.

"Now, have you seen Lusa?"

"No." Mickey was suddenly serious again, "I spoke to Nychta last night. She's worried that none of your Order can back you up here. If we're right about Voldemort's plan, then you're going to need help."

"You volunteered?"

"No, I was volunteered. Gaby is having too much trouble right now as it is, with the last break in. Jade are trying to block every access to Hell there is. And don't even get me started on Blood. They're about as reliable as rain in a desert. That leaves Silver and Obsidian. Nychta has her hands full trying to control the influx of souls from Voldemort's campaign. You know what murder victims are like…" Mickey trailed off, shrugging, "That leaves Silver as the only backup available."

"Have you spoken with Tannin or any of the high ranking Torturers?"

"You do know they hate that name almost as much as Gold hates being called, 'Gaby's Grunts'?"

"Probably why we call them it," Tristan smirked back, "and for that matter, I've heard Silver using those nicknames as well."

Mickey shrugged, "They are catchy, although I never want to know where you got the 'Damned and Demented' from."

Tristan laughed as he shook his head at the Leader of the Silver Order, "Better then these stupid colours."

"On that my friend, I have to agree."

They began to walk towards the school, thoughts of finding Lusa momentarily driven from Tristan's mind at the knowledge the Nychta's 'help' had arrived. Plus, he actually liked Mickey, which was more then could be said for Gaby. Of the Five Orders of Light and Dark, Silver and Obsidian were the only ones to really push the 'United Front' into reality, willing backing each other up. That was mainly due to Mickey and Nychta making the effort to put aside their differences a few thousand years ago and since their areas of responsibility often overlapped; it had proved a godsend more then once. Silver were the guardians of living souls, responsible for trying to guide humanity. At the moment of their death, a person's soul became the responsibility of the Obsidian Order, where they were judged and then send to whatever afterlife their actions on Earth had earned them.

When Tristan had joined, being the first human-side to directly join the Obsidian Order, it had been the Silver Order Nychta had sent him to for the support none of them could provide. It had also been Mickey and Shiva, his second in command, who had snuck him past the Gold Order, into heaven to see his parents and Sirius before they were reincarnated. And although he had sworn them to secrecy about it, it had been Mickey who had made sure the Jade Order, the guardians of hell, were distracted enough not to notice when Tristan and Nychta had snuck in to hell in search of the creature that had nearly killed the young human-side only a few months before and it had been his vote that had allowed Tristan to bring Lusa out of hell as his familiar three weeks later.

They were just leaving the forest when the soft brush of Mickey's wings against his bare arm caught Tristan's attention, "Eh, Mickey? Wings?"

The other man blinked once and then faintly coloured as he realised what Tristan meant. A moment later, the massive wings were gone. The faint glow that always surrounded the angels also disappeared, making him seem, while still unnaturally beautiful, more human as they walked across the open grass towards the school.

"I assume we're going to your quarters?"

"Yeah, I've got all the wardings up there already and I have coke."

"Coke is good." Mickey acknowledged.

Tristan smirked; the angels' racial addiction to caffeine had been a major source of entertainment for everyone in the Orders that wasn't one for years. Of course, Tristan had yet to meet a demon who wasn't addicted to chocolate, himself included.

"Do you have chocolate?"

"Of course." Tristan said airily causing his companion to laugh. They entered the school.

Mickey, of course, immediately began to get attention, mainly of the feminine kind, making Tristan have to fight to keep the amusement from showing on his face. After all it wasn't every day an insanely beautiful, six foot six, blonde man walked into the school. Tristan giggled, unable to help himself as he watched Mickey smile benignly and try not to glare. Tristan could easily acknowledge that Mickey deserved the attention, having been somewhat in the same boat as the students the first time he had met the archangel. Of course, at the time, Tristan had also just begun to figure some things out about himself that had left him even more confused about the transformation that had made him a member of the Obsidian Guard. At the time, he hadn't known what was himself and what was just the result of being made part demon. Nychta and Mickey had been all that held him together in those first few depressing, disturbing and terrifying months.

Of course, there were a few other things that had helped cause the students reaction to the literal angel in their midst… while Tristan preferred fairly baggy combats trousers or jeans, Mickey's blue jeans were just an inch too loose to be called skin tight and they were fitted. His white T-shirt looked painted on and he moved with the same wolf cautious grace so evident in Tristan, but where as Tristan was a solitary predator, Mickey was a pack leader and it showed. Tristan speeded up slightly, knowing how uncomfortable the attention of the younger students would make the archangel. Even so, he closed the door of his quarters in more then one disappointed face after Mickey had entered.

The older guardian flopped down into one of the chairs and glared at the print across from him, spreading his reappeared wings out to either side of him. None of the angels liked concealing their wings. Shiva once told Tristan it was because the loss of the weight threw them off balance.

"Death on a Pale Horse? You always did have weird taste, Tristan."

Tristan grunted as he left the other man to his glaring and went to get the coke, and the chocolate, dumping both the cans and the bars onto the coffee table when he came back. Mickey had made himself useful and put some music, Cannibal Corpse of all things, on before switching on the laptop. A few moments later, he had accessed the Gatehouse and was busy entering the codes what would give him access to the records kept by the Orders. He grunted a little and snagged one of the cans from beside him, "Right, from what we've been able to find out, Voldemort has somehow been able to get in contact with a deviant. We don't know who did it and quite frankly I don't think anyone cares. What worries us, is that first someone got into hell, which is meant to be impossible and secondly that whoever done it was powerful enough, or a fast enough talker that they managed to get the deviant's attention off how nice they'd taste barbequed long enough to make a deal with them."

Tristan nodded; his lips quirking a little at the last comment, "So that's why Jade are running around like headless chickens?"

Mickey nodded once and then brought up a pan dimensional map, "Here and here are the two weakest points. We have to assume they got through one or the other. There simply isn't anywhere else they can have got through. Well, there isn't anywhere else Jade will admit to anyway." Mickey shrugged, "This is the one I'm more inclined to keep an eye on." He slowly traced a finger along the screen.

"The Black Country? Why?"

Mickey shrugged, "The other one opens into Downtown Manhattan. If deviants were appearing there, they'd have been on CNN by now."

"Oh." Tristan, "What about the old summoning rituals?"

"First, whoever cast it would have to know the difference between the demons, angels and deviants. Then they'd have to know about the Orders and after that they'd have to be able to speak the language the ritual was written in well enough to alter it without killing themselves. All together, that's pretty unlikely."

"Haven't there been cases where someone directly summoned a deviant? I'm sure Nychta said something about them…"

"Yeah, it's happened. Obsidian was usually the ones sent after them, so Nicky would know. It looks mainly like they lucked out to be honest and made the correct mistake to change it. They might have had some outside influences, but they didn't get it to work because they knew what they were doing."

A knock on the door made both men jump. Mickey hit a button on the screen that broke the connection to the Gatehouse and Tristan opened the door.

"Minerva, what can I do for you?"

"Tristan, the students were saying you had a guest. I was wondering if he would be attending dinner."

Tristan hesitated for a moment and then turned slightly sideways, so that he and Minerva could see Mickey, but the deputy headmistress wouldn't be able to enter the room around him, "You fancy eating in the great hall?"

Mickey considered it for a moment, before shaking his head and thanking Minerva for the offer, "… actually, will you be eating there, Tristan?"

"I had planned on it, but that was before I ran into you."

"I'm sure the headmaster would like to meet you…" Minerva trailed of, and looked expectantly at the angel. Her eyes widened suddenly. Noticing her look, Tristan focused on his friend and suddenly paled. He grabbed Minerva and jerked her into the room, closing the door even as Mickey realised what had happened and started swearing.

Minerva stood there, looking between the two people… or the young man and the… whatever he was. With fluid grace, Mickey stood up and moved around to stand on front of her, tilting her head up to he could look into her eyes. He didn't really need to do it, but it looked impressive and gave the person the impression that a great deal of power was focused on them. It was only then, as he held her head that Minerva realised the man was glowing softly.

"We can trust her."

Tristan shrugged, "I know."

"But you haven't told her anything?"

"I didn't think there was a reason to."

Mickey nodded, still looking into Minerva's eyes, "Change back."

Tristan raised an eyebrow, "You sure?"

"Yes."

Mickey turned Minerva's head slightly and she watched wide eyed as Tristan began to change on front of her eyes. His eyes were first, slowly lightening to killing curse green, the pupils changing to slits, like a cat. His jaw and cheekbones shifted slightly and he smiled at her, flashing fangs. He raised a clawed hand to push his hair back behind his suddenly pointed ears. Minerva's eyes were fixated by the black nails, "What… what are you?"

"Will you let us explain everything before running to Dumbledore, or should we just obliviate you?"

"I'll listen." She said softly turning back to Mickey.

"Sit down."

She did.

Tristan sighed once and ran his claws through his hair, "To answer your question, I'm part human, part demon. I started out human, but then I joined the Obsidian Order, I had to undergo a ritual… thing… that turned me into a member of the Order. I can choose to look like a human if I want to, since that was my original race. This is what I really look like. Mickey over there is a full blooded, bono fide angel, archangel even."

Minerva blinked and looked at Mickey, "Archangel…"

He glared at an unrepentant Tristan and then nodded to Minerva, "Michael. I got nicknamed 'Mickey' by another member of the Obsidian Order a while ago and never quite managed to get rid of it. Tristan started a whole new trend with nicknames when he joined us."

"You're in this Order as well then?" It was obvious Minerva didn't know what to think.

Mickey sighed, "There are five orders, Gold, Silver, Obsidian, Jade and Blood. Each of them is responsible for a certain area. I'm the leader of the Silver Order. Our primary duty is to guide humanity and where necessary push things into happening a certain way. Tristan is a member of the Obsidian Order. They are the Pathway Guards; basically they guard the paths between dimensions and they are also in charge of judging the dead. They are the primary hunters as well, tracking down anything that escapes hell, or anywhere else."

"I see. The others…" she trailed off.

Tristan shifted, "The 'bright n' shinys', Gold, they guard heaven and put souls in bodies, stuff like that. Jade are the guards for hell. They also do the retribution and punishment bits. Blood are complicated. Technically they are responsible for Repenters."

"Repenters?"

"Let me put it like this, Obsidian are the judges. Jade are the prison guards and Blood are the probation officers and defence barristers."

Minerva nodded dazedly.

"Once they bring someone out of hell, they are then responsible for proving that the person is no longer a danger, and will actually redeem themselves. We call them the 'Damned and Demented' for a reason."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm just visiting." Mickey said.

"Teaching children?" Tristan asked glibly and got a glare in reply.

"Basically I'm here to deal with Voldemort. The bad news is; I can't do anything about him until some very important criteria are met. Hence, the teaching children."

"I…"

A look passed between Mickey and Tristan as Minerva struggled to assimilate what they had told her.

"You have to tell the headmaster." Both men turned to look at her in shock.

"I'm serious; he is the leader of the light. You have to tell him."

"Technically, Gaby is the leader of the light." Mickey said.

"Minerva, Albus can't be told."

"Tristan, you have to tell…" she stood up sharply.

"No." Tristan sighed and walking over put his hands on her shoulders, "Once upon a time, Dumbledore was a great man, but that time is over. Power corrupts, Minerva and Dumbledore has had too much power for too long."

"Albus has done everything for this world…"

Mickey sighed and said softy "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

"I beg your pardon?"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions. There is no greater good, Minerva. Dumbledore's actions damned him a long time ago."

Minerva staggered and only Tristan's hands on her shoulders stopped her falling, "You mean Albus…"

Mickey and Tristan shared another look before the archangel spoke, "Albus Dumbledore is hell bound."

Authors Notes: Short Chapter- only 3027 words long. My average for this story should be around 6000 words per chapter, so that's a little disappointing, but there was just nothing to be added after that last line. And of course, not much happened either. Mickey got introduced and the make up of the Orders of Light and Dark were explained. They're important to the plot. My mum's a probation officer- I really couldn't help the dig. Not sure she'll appreciate the joke though. We also found out a little more about Lusa and McGonagall finds out some interesting titbits about Tristan. Oh, and now we know why Tristan went to all the trouble to make his laptop work. Reads like a filler chapter, sorry. On the plus side, check out my profile for cookies for the next chapter.