A/N: Sorry it took me a little longer to update, but I've been sick and way behind on my summer homework. Oh, and this chapter is going to have the first fight scene. Tell me if it's really crappy, because I'll rewrite it if I need to. Anyway, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or Harry Potter.
Chapter 5: Daemon Dilemmas
The first week at Hogwarts passed quickly. Kori was soon very popular despite her odd way of talking. Half of the school thought of Gar as the class clown, and the other half thought of him as an annoyance. Vic was also very popular. In fact, he already had a girlfriend. Dick was still friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and he truly enjoyed hanging out with them. Raven, though, still had no friends. She would spend most of her free time reading or meditating while not doing her homework. Everyone stayed away from her. It's not that she didn't want to make friends; it was just that she was afraid of what they would think of her. Her only friend was Hagrid.
On Saturday morning, Raven was at Hagrid's. She was listening to him rant about Professor Snape's rude dismissal of one of his ideas while quietly sipping her tea. Raven didn't interrupt him; she knew he just wanted to vent.
"And to top it all off," Hagrid said, finally stopping his pacing and turning to Raven, "another three chickens were killed last night from that damn daemon!"
Raven sighed and set down her cup. "That problem will soon be over with, Hagrid. We're going to deal with the daemon tonight."
Hagrid's face softened as he looked at Raven. "Ah, ya are? Thanks. That will be a big help." Hagrid then sat down at the table across from Raven. "Thanks for listening."
"No problem," said Raven. "I'm used to it."
"Well-" Hagrid began but was cut off by a knock at the door. "Excuse me," Hagrid said, rising to his massive feet. He crossed the room and opened the door. Outside were Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Dick.
"Hey, Hagrid," Harry said.
"Well, hello, Harry! Come on in," Hagrid said gesturing to the room behind him. "You four know-" Hagrid stopped as he turned around and saw the room. Raven was gone. "Hmm, she must have left."
"Who?" asked Hermione, looking out the window for any sign of Hagrid's previous guest.
"Raven." Hagrid scratched his head as he looked out the window with Hermione.
"What was she doing here," asked Ron suspiciously.
"Visitin', o' course." Hagrid crossed to his cupboards and reached for his tea cups. "Who wants tea?"
"I'll have some," Harry and Hermione chorused. Hagrid got down two large cups and poured the tea. Once the students had their tea, Hagrid turned to Dick.
"You're a transfer student, right?" Dick nodded. "Have you met Professor Snape?" Dick nodded again, and Ron rolled his eyes. "What do you think of him?"
"He's kind of mean," said Dick tentatively.
Hagrid looked delighted. "Good! I don't wanna turn no students against a teacher, but-" Hagrid commenced to rant and rave to his new audience about the evils of Professor Snape.
That night, all was well in the castle. Kori was unknowingly being hit on by two guys, Gar was attempting to annoy all the students he saw in the library (which included Hermione), Vic was hanging out with his new girlfriend, and Dick was being taught to play Exploding Snapp by Harry and an extremely singed Ron. Raven, though, was preparing. She was alone in the girl's dormitory where she was putting on her usual Titans costume. After she was ready, Raven levitated above her bed a bit and called the Titans telepathically. Raven called to them all at once and said, Get ready. We're going to fight the daemon tonight. Meet me outside Hagrid's hut in a half an hour. Wear your Titans costumes. When she was finished, Raven sunk into the shadows of the floor and appeared outside Hagrid's hut.
As Kori got the message, her bright green eyes lit up. "Excuse me," she said politely to the two drooling boys and ran to her dormitory to get dressed.
"Garfield Logan, I swear I will curse you if you do not leave us right now!" an extremely angry Ravenclaw yelled. Hermione, with whom she had been studying, covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her giggle. Madam Pince chose that moment to walk over.
"Is there a problem here?" Her voice implied that she really meant, "What the hell is going on in my Library!" After Madam Pince's words Gar got Raven's telepathic message. In an instant his face was serious.
"Excuse me," Gar said, pushing the extremely angry librarian out of the way as he headed for the Hufflepuff common room.
Vic was talking with his girlfriend in the Ravenclaw common room when he got Raven's message. Vic stopped talking, a look of determination on his face. He stood and said, "I have to go." Giving her a kiss, Vic ran out of the classroom.
Dick jumped back as the cards exploded in Ron's face again, completely obliterating his eyebrows. The three boys laughed. Suddenly, Dick stopped laughing and looked up at the stairs to the girl's dormitory to his left. Turning back to his friends, Dick said, "You know what, I'm really tired. I'm gonna go on to bed." Without leaving Harry and Ron room to comment, Dick dashed up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.
Once Dick had reached the dormitory, he surveyed his surroundings to make sure no one was around. When he was sure, Dick thrust open his trunk and pulled out his Robin costume. Quickly changing, Dick grinned at the familiar feel of the specially designed fabric and the weight of his metal tipped boots. He pulled his cloak over himself to completely hide his costume and pulled up his hood to hide his mask. He then dashed down the stairs again and hurriedly said, "I'm going for a walk," to his two puzzled friends as he rushed out the portrait hole.
Kori had made the change to Starfire quickly. She adjusted her collar in the mirror before jumping out her dormitory window and flying to Hagrid's hut.
Gar made quick time in returning to his dormitory. He swiftly flung off his school clothes revealing his purple and black costume underneath. Beast boy pulled his boots and gloves from his trunk and hastily put them on. He then turned into a green mouse, then back into his human form. He was now green again. Turning into an animal made the potion wear off. Beast Boy smiled and admired his new green complexion in the mirror. He was flexing his imaginary muscles when he heard someone ascending the stairs. Turning into a green eagle, Beast Boy flew out his window into the night.
Vic ran out to Hagrid's hut where he met Raven. "Hey, Rae," he said. He smiled at her as she walked up to him. Raven put her hand to his chest. Her eyes glowed white, and soon Vic's left eye (right eye to Raven) turned red. Going from head to toe, Vic became Cyborg. After the transformation was complete, Raven stepped back, and Cyborg shed his now useless clothes. The couple waited for a few minutes before they saw a dark figure running toward them. As it got closer, it discarded its cloak and revealed itself as Robin. Just after the Boy Wonder's arrival, Starfire and a green eagle joined the group from the skies. The green eagle changed into Beast Boy, and the Teen Titans were reunited.
The group spent no time talking. Robin immediately took charge, and the group was heading for the Forbidden Forest. They stopped at the edge, and Robin turned to Raven. "This forest's huge. How do we find it?"
"Hold on," Raven responded. She sat in the air cross-legged and chanted her mantra, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The Titans watched as a black energy-form of their friend rose from her physical body. Raven's astral body zoomed through the forest at an incredible pace, searching for the daemon aura. Near a clearing in the center, Raven found the aura. Retuning to her physical body, Raven levitated down to the newly dew soaked ground. Standing, Raven said, "Follow me."
After about a half an hour of walking, flying, and levitating, the Titans heard a sickening noise, a tearing and ripping sound mixed with slurps and hissing. The Titans headed toward the clearing before them. Once they broke the line of trees, they saw the hideous site. A creature, roughly twice the size of Cyborg, was feeding off of the carcass of a giant spider.
"What?" said Raven staring at the feasting creature. Her face showed confusion. With her words, the creature turned towards the Titans. The moonlight showed its sickening features. The creature had dry leathery looking skin. Its long, thin brown arms easily reached the ground when they weren't ripping pieces of meat from its prey. Its back was slightly hunched, and its torso was incredibly skinny, showing many more ribs than was normal. Its legs were long and thin, matching its arms. Its knees bent the wrong way, giving the creature the impression of sitting on springs. Its face was long resting on an equally long neck. The leathery skin was stretched tightly over its face, revealing a large mouth lined with blood-dripping fangs. The most horrifying thing about the creature, though, was its eyes. Its eyes were like deep pits of blackness sunken into the creature's skull.
Despite its features, the smell was what made the Titans cringe. A mix of the coppery tang of blood from the spider and the putrid stench of thousands of rotting corpses hung around the creature like robes of aroma.
Beast Boy puked, as did Starfire. Cyborg looked disgusted, and Robin looked confident. Raven, though, still had the expression of confusion on her face. As Beast Boy and Starfire recovered, the daemon abandoned its prey and started toward the Titans. "Raven, what is this thing?" Robin demanded.
"It's a Macabrel daemon, but-"
Robin cut her off, "How do we kill it?"
"Sever the head from the body. You should know, though-"
Robin cut her off again, "That shouldn't be hard." Taking out a bird-o-rang, Robin aimed at the daemons extremely long neck. In an instant, Robin had thrown his blade-sharp device at the beast. Instead of severing the neck, though, the bird-o-rang simply grazed it. The daemon roared in anger at the annoyance and charged at the Boy Wonder.
Raven quickly put up a protective shield and finished her sentence, "-it has extremely thick skin." The daemon's thick claws scratched and scraped Raven's energy field. Eventually, it started to rip through.
Robin yelled, "Titans, scatter!"
Beast Boy and Starfire took to the skies while Robin and Cyborg retreated back into the forest. Raven released her energy field once her friends were gone and phased into the ground. Appearing behind the monster, Raven sent a blast straight at its neck. She could hear the bones cracking as the daemons head was pushed forward, but with more cracking, it lifted its head, though it was now slightly askew.
"That's it!" yelled Robin to his teammates. "Hit its neck with everything you've got. Eventually we'll wear through."
The Titans agreed with this logic. Raven flew away from the enraged daemon to allow her fellow Titans room to attack. Cyborg used his sonic cannon to push the beast back where Robin was waiting. Robin took out his sword (A/N: like the one used in "The End" pt. 2) and slashed at the daemon's neck creating shallow slits. It roared even louder this time and turned on Robin, but he was too fast. Robin was already on a high tree branch when the creature twirled. It then reached out with its long arms clamping onto a lower branch. It swiftly swung itself into the tree and reached for the Boy Wonder. Robin's eyes widened in terror, but he quickly used his grappling hook to swing to an adjacent tree.
The girls were ready. Starfire used a combination of her eyebeams and starbolts to push the daemon out of the tree. Raven came up behind the fallen daemon and made a thin blade of black energy. Thrusting her hands forward, Raven cast the blade at the creature's neck. Blood gushed from the open gash Raven had created.
Now Beast Boy swooped in. Cyborg threw a punch to the daemon and sent it straight into the green pterodactyl's large talons. Punctures in its neck bled relentlessly, causing the beast to go into a fit of rage. The daemon retaliated on Beast Boy and swiped with its own large claws. Its daemon strength sent the now human boy into a nearby tree. Blood dripped from gashes in the changeling's side.
"Beast Boy!" Starfire yelled and threw her bolts of righteous fury at the monster.
Back at the castle, students were gathered at the windows. Explosions had congregated the students, and now they saw flashes over the Forbidden Forest. These green, blue, and black flashes were the cause of the loud explosions. Students jostled to be in the front to see the spectacular light show.
In the Gryffindor common room, Ron and Harry were at the front of the crowd looking out the window. "Man," Ron said to Harry, "I wonder if Dick is seeing this?"
Robin came to the aide of his alien girlfriend by sending explosive disks at the creature. It was temporarily blinded by the bright lights so Raven levitated before the creature. She chanted, "Zincari Kinotu Marbe Keth!" Raven's eyes became brilliant white glows, and the daemon was on the ground writhing in pain. Raven started chanting again, finishing off her curse, but as she began the beast lashed out and sliced through Raven's leotard leaving deep scratches across her stomach. Raven landed and clutched her bleeding torso. The now recovered daemon grabbed the half-daemon by the arm, and threw her into the air. Raven came crashing down into the clearing, her arm bent at an odd angle. Beast Boy, clutching his own wounds, ran to Raven's side.
"Raven," he said through tears, "get up!"
Starfire and Cyborg looked at one another and nodded. Running side by side, Cyborg and Starfire charged at the daemon. Cyborg charged his sonic cannon, and Starfire readied her starbolts. In unison, Starfire and Cyborg let loose their blasts. The blasts combined and created a beam of bright aquamarine. When the blast hit the daemon, it was thrown back ten feet, where it landed in an unconscious heap. Robin then jumped on top of the daemon and used all of his strength to drive his sword into the monster's throat. Robin then lifted the sword into the air and with a single swipe, decapitated the daemon. Its headless body writhed on the ground, and smoke began to rise from it. Robin was already a safe distance away from the corpse when it burst into flame. When the flames subsided, only a smoldering pile of bones remained.
Beast Boy and Raven half walked and were half carried to Hagrid's hut. Once inside, all of the Titans sat on the large couch before the hearth. Hagrid made them tea. Raven began to meditate and slowly heal herself. Her cuts closed and her arm repaired, but Raven ignored her bruises, she had to help her friends first. One by one she went around to the Titans and healed their scrapes and cuts. In the middle of healing Starfire, though, Raven fell asleep. She had used too much energy. Thankfully, Starfire was her last patient, for she had the least amount of injuries.
Cyborg and Beast Boy returned to their dormitories where they took their potions. Starfire helped Robin carry a sleeping Raven into the castle. Starfire then headed to the Hufflepuff common room after giving Robin a kiss, and Robin carried Raven to her bed. He had to be extremely quiet so as to not wake up the other girls who had all gone to bed after the light show. Robin tucked his friend in her bed and then went to his own dormitory. There he pondered Raven's confusion over the daemon. What was wrong about it? He would have to ask her what she was so confused about in the morning.
The thing Robin didn't notice, though, was that someone was awake and saw a dark figure deposit Raven in her bed.
AN: Was the fight scene good? Please tell me.