Chapter 2

A/N: Finished another chapter for you guys. I can't believe the response this has already received. I don't think I've ever gotten 25 reviews on the first chapter of a story so thank you very much!

As for people worried about the whole marriage thing, yes even before I posted it I knew it was somewhat cliche. I actually spent a while considering rewriting it differently before posting it the first time, but in the end stuck with it. I needed something that would tie Harry and Rias' interests together immediately and did not want to make Harry a devil. This does not mean that the two automatically are in love with each other or anything. I'm not even saying that Rias is particularly pleased with the situation, it's just that I believe she is a good judge of character and she believes Harry is a good guy, while also being on sort of a high from realizing she's free from Raiser. On Harry's end, I don't think the shock has quite worn off yet, and while he doesn't love Rias yet, he is very attracted to her (really who wouldn't be? lol).

As always, please leave me a review to let me know what you all think. Enjoy!

Harry awoke as he felt a large tremor shake the house. He could feel a tension in the air. It was if the magic around him was almost tangible. Before he could react to this strange situation, he was completely distracted by the sleeping devil in his bed. She hadn't been joking in her statement the night before, and had in fact climbed into the small bed with him completely naked. Feeling overly embarrassed and flustered, Harry had tried to say he'd sleep on the floor, but Rias was having none of it. She forcefully pulled him back in and told him she was using him a replacement body pillow or she wouldn't be able to sleep. That's why he woke up in the predicament that he did… face smashed up into her large breasts.

Another smaller tremor shook through the house. "Rias. RIAS!" He shook her trying to wake her up. Of course this only served to cause certain parts of her anatomy to jiggle enticingly, almost distracting him again.

"Hmmm… what is it?" She opened her eyes slowly, looking at him sleepily.

"Somethings going o-" suddenly the house shook again, more violently than before, and golden light burst in through the window. The two occupants of the room scrambled out of the bed.

Harry lunged for his wand which he saw across the room while Rias dressed quickly. Wand in hand, he hurried over to the window, paling at what he saw, "Death Eaters… and Voldemort."

The pale, snakelike wizard was there at the front of his followers, casting something towards the house. To him it appeared as if they were all being held back by a large golden barrier that surrounded the property. He figured it was the blood wards that Dumbledore had cast all those years ago. Despite how the wards were in fact holding back the Death Eaters, Harry was confused. He was pretty sure the wards were supposed to stop them from even finding him in the first place.

Then with a sound like tinkling glass, the barrier seemed to shatter, and fade away. There was as moment of complete silence within the neighbourhood before cheers could be heard and the volley of spells cast were renewed. Harry didn't have a chance to react before the bedroom wall in front of him exploded, and sent him flying through the air. He heard Rias shriek as the blast threw her against the opposite wall as well.

Staggering to his feet, Harry squinted, trying to see in front of him. The air was thick with the dust from the broken plaster and drywall. Rias was conscious, but moving slowly. She seemed a little out of it after impacting the wall headfirst.

Harry stepped forward just as three echoing cracks filled the night, and three new silhouettes were visible where his outer wall used to be. "Expelliarmus! Stupefy!"

He got off two spells before the Death Eaters responded. One shielded while the other sent a nonverbal spell towards him. Stepping out of the way, he sent a couple stunners back. He finally got lucky on the last one, and the wizard in question went toppling backwards out the hole.

Unfortunately, the other two continued to press on without pausing, forcing Harry back. Another large crash, told Harry that Death Eaters had entered the house on the main floor as well, and had just blown in his bedroom door. For a half a second he wondered how he was going to fight on two sides, flanked as he was, when Rias stepped back into his line of sight. He hadn't even seen her get back up.

She swept both her hands in front of her, crimson energy that matched her hair, streaking out from her fingertips. It exploded violently as it hit the invading wizards, sending them flying backwards out of the room and down the stairs with a nasty crunch.

"Harry! There's too many of them here to play around! You need to respond with lethal force, they'll kill you if they can." During that time, she'd flung another ball of energy at the two he'd been fighting, accidentally hitting a new wizard who'd just apparated into the room before them.

He knew she was right though. He wouldn't use the unforgivables, he still felt faintly ill every time he remembered that he'd tried to cast the cruciatus curse in the Ministry, even if it was on Bellatrix, but he would fight fire with fire.

"Bombarda!" The spell careened through the air, shattering his opponents shield with ease and knocking them out into the open air.

"We need to get out of here!"

"I know. Accio!" His invisibility cloak flew across the room into his free hand from where he'd left it the night before.

Exiting the room they crossed the landing and started down the stairs. Footsteps thundering through the room they'd just left gave Harry an idea. Spinning midway down the stairs, Harry raised his wand towards his bedroom door. "Incendio!"

A thick stream of flame shot out the tip, impacting the leader of the group as they crossed the threshold. The wizards were screaming as they tried to douse the flames, too busy to notice Rias' follow up attack that finished them off.

Harry could see even more running up the front lawn towards the door. Remembering something Hermione had done in the Department of Mysteries, he cast, "Colloportus!"

The front door slammed shut with a loud squelch, as something else crashed into it only seconds later.

"Come on!" Harry hurried towards the kitchen, ducking a spell that shot out of a dark corner, returning fire with another blasting curse.

"Well, well, well... maybe you do have a modicum of talent after all," a voice drawled, as the person who spoke stepped out of the shadows revealing their long blonde hair into the low light. "Too bad it won't be enough, especially now that Dumbledore or your mutt of a godfather isn't here to save you."

"Malfoy!" He growled, "You're supposed to be in Azkaban!"

"Azkaban will never be able to hold true supporters of the Dark Lord!"

Harry scoffed, "Sure. Keep telling yourself that. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

The father of his school rival scowled, before launching a barrage of spells his way. He was able to sidestep a few, and shield against the rest, but the final curse in the chain managed to break his shield, and slice a gash into his arm causing him grunt at the sudden pain. He staggered slightly, before bringing his wand back up to bare, despite the increase in pain it caused.

He had a curse on the tip of his tongue when Rias stepped in front of him looking furious. "My name is Rias Gremory, heir to the Gremory family, one of the highest ranking families of the 72 pillars of the underworld, and I shall not allow you to harm my husband!"

Her fists, clenched at her sides, were writhing in crimson energy. "Th-th-that's not possible! Potter couldn't possibly succeed in summoning and bonding a devil! No one's done it in centur- Aghhh!"

Lucius screamed as Rias' hand shot out faster that the human eye could see, launching an attack that hit him square in the shoulder, burning away at his flesh.

A moment later, she launched her other hand forward intending to finish the fight, when just before he would be hit, he vanished in the swirl of a portkey. The energy she'd released took out a good chunk of the wall behind where he'd sat.

There was silence for a moment before Harry saw Rias' eyes widen, as she suddenly lunged to the other side of him, splaying out her hands in front of her. A red glowing seal appeared before them both, just in time to intercept an unknown spell with a loud boom. Harry's scar flared with pain, making his eyes water.

"Hmmm… devil magic is as amazing as they say," the voice from Harry's nightmares spoke, as Voldemort stepped out of the shadows, red eyes glinting in contrast to his deathly pale skin. "I'm impressed that you of all people managed to summon a devil Harry." The dark wizard shot off a few more spells in rapid succession with his yew wand, each of which was blocked with efficiency from the crimson haired devil.

Voldemort chuckled, a sound that sent shivers down his spine, "Still hiding behind others I see Harry? Well I guess you did summon the devil, so you should get some of the credit from what she does. It can't be that powerful though, or you wouldn't have been able to bind it."

Rias growled at the insult, batlike wings sprouting from her back, as her whole body began to glow crimson, her beautiful hair suddenly moving as if blown by some nonexistent breeze. The energy she was building up was immense. Harry could feel it buzzing through his body. It felt powerful… and dangerous.

Just before she looked like she was going to release her attack, Voldemort smirked, waving his wand, and casting some kind of golden bubble shield around himself. That's when Harry realized what's going on. He was only testing her, wanting to see the extent of her abilities, "No Rias! Don't!"

His shout fell on deaf ears. Luckily it seemed the dark wizard had underestimated her. Her power of destruction crashed into his shield with what Harry imagined to be the force of a freight train. The shield shattered and blew away as if it had never existed, while the wizard in question was thrown out of the house, tumbling through the air.

Though it was the first time he'd ever seen Voldemort take such a hit, even in his fight against Dumbledore, Harry knew the wizard wasn't done for. "We need to get out of here now!"

"I agree. I'll need a minute though. It will take a bit longer for me to set up a teleportation circle that will work seeing as you're not a devil."

Rias turned and started to work on what she'd said. Harry kept his eyes focused on the direction he'd seen Voldemort's form disappear to. He was glad he did as he caught sight of the spell coming his way out of the darkness. Reacting on instinct he cast his own at the same time trying to intercept it. Harry knew that no shield he cast could hold under the onslaught Voldemort could unleash, and thus had sought to recreate the events of two years previous as his only means of holding him back.

To his relief, Harry's luck held, and the two wands connected. The effect lit up the room revealing Voldemort's enraged face once again. It seems the Dark Lord didn't take too well to being blasted around.

"Your little trick may have worked last time boy, but you won't be escaping so easily this time!" Voldemort seemed to be straining under the connection. Attempting to push the little beads of light that had appeared, just like last time, towards Harry. To both their surprise they seemed to be remaining almost solidly in the middle. Harry had thought he might have been able to push them back like before, but as hard as he tried they barely wavered.

The sound of Phoenix song rose up around them once again, and when it did Harry was sure he'd heard Rias mutter unpleasant, but he couldn't give it any thought, focused as he was on the battle.

"Give up now Harry and I'll give you a quick death! There's no one around to protect you. Dumbledore's magic failed allowing us to find you, and his order won't be able to reach you now with the anti-apparition wards we cast. How long do you hope to hold out?"

He was about to retort when he felt a comforting presence behind him, "It's ready Harry. You need to break the connection so we can get out of here."

"Ok."

Harry tightened his grip on his wand preparing for what he was about to do.

"Don't ignore me boy!" He wasn't sure if it was possible for Voldemort to look anymore angry, so he did just that, he continued to ignore him. Taking a deep breath, he yanked his wand away, breaking the connection instantly.

As soon as he was free, he felt Rias wrap her arms around him and yank him backwards. He saw that they'd stepped onto a glowing red sigil, much like Rias had arrived on the night before. She said something he didn't pick up on causing the symbol to flash brightly. The second before they disappeared, Harry heard Voldemort shout something, and his hand was engulfed in sudden pain.

Almost as suddenly as they disappeared, they were spit out at there destination. If Harry's hand hadn't just been suddenly assaulted by an intense stabbing pain he might have noticed that he had just gone through what was probably the calmest form of magical transportation in his life. Instead he fell to his knees in the dark with a grunt, unable to figure out what was causing the pain.

"Harry!" He could tell even if he couldn't see her that Rias was kneeling down beside him. "What's wrong?"

"My hand," he bit out.

"It seems to be impaled by something. I can't really tell what it is though. One second."

"You can see?" He asked incredulously, forgetting his pain for only a split second. If he wasn't just starting to be able to make out the sight of stars in the sky, Harry might have thought he had gone blind. Wherever they were, there were no sources of light nearby.

"A devil's senses are stronger than a human's. They are able to see better in the dark." Harry grunted softly once again, and even he wasn't sure if it was in acknowledgment of what she'd said or at sudden throb in his hand.

Rias glowed dimly for a second, causing him to blink before a small crimson seal made an appearance floating near her head. It emitted a soft light allowing him to see everything within a couple feet. Looking down at the mangled wreck that was his hand, it took him a moment to figure out what he was looking at.

"M-m-my wand!" The bleeding was starting to slow, but large splinters of holly were still sticking awkwardly into his skin. He didn't even know where the rest of it was, but it seemed the pheonix feather had been unknowingly clutched within the bleeding limb.

"I'll have to remove them before it can be healed. It's going to hurt."

"Go ahead. I can deal with pain."

Rias paused for a moment before continuing on with what she was doing. He did hear her mutter, "You shouldn't have to." A moment later Harry had to grit his teeth as the wood was yanked out. She took the bleeding appendage between her hands and once again flared in crimson light. "There. It's not completely healed but that should at least stop the bleeding."

"Thank you Rias."

She waved him off, "It's nothing."

"No… really... it isn't. You have every right to hate me for trapping you in this situation, even if was unintentional on my part, but you don't. You're even helping me. I probably wouldn't have survived just now if you hadn't been there. So again, thank you."

"You're welcome Harry. It's what you do for family, and we are family now," Rias blushed slightly at what he said.

"Family…," he whispered the word, testing how it sounded coming out of his mouth. "I-I think I like that."

"Good. Now, I should start preparing the ritual so we can complete it before the sun comes up," as she said this, Harry noted that sky did seem to be slowly lightening.

"Ritual? What ritual and where are we exactly?"

"Oh, sorry, I keep forgetting you can't see as well as a devil. We're at Stonehenge," she said absentmindedly.

"STONEHENGE?!"

"Shhh!" She turned back to face him eyes wide. "I wanted to finish here before it was light out and any normal humans see us, but with you shouting they might find us anyway. I'm sure they have guards around over night."

"Exactly!" Harry whispered furiously. "We can't just break into Stonehenge! Why are we even here?"

"It's like I told you, so I could do a ritual. I'm going to try and locate the remaining Hallows. You'll need them, especially now that you've lost your wand. Plus, there's nothing wrong with using Stonehenge, it's magical anyways."

"Wait it is?"

"Of course! It's probably one of the greatest accomplishments of your group of human based magic users, not that they remember it anymore. Knowledge of its use among humans has been lost for centuries, lucky for us, devil-kind has a much longer memory."

"Really? How does it work?" Harry figured Hermione might actually start drooling if she could hear this kind of information.

"It has many uses and I'm definitely not aware of all of them, but it can serve to amplify area based spells. I'm going to use it to try and track down the Hallows location across England."

"Is that even possible? The magic involved sounds incredible. Wouldn't others have tried the same thing before?"

"Well this kind of thing wouldn't be possible without an artifact similar to Stonehenge, and as I said before, there are no humans left who know how to use it. Apart from that, the hallows are known to be able to resist detection. I know what I'm about to attempt wouldn't work without you having the cloak here, as well as yourself."

"Ok. What do I need to do then?"

"Just go stand in the centre with your cloak. I'll be ready to start shortly."

Harry followed her directions, stopping in the centre of the circle, and started observing what she was doing. Rias was moving around to some of the different stones, touching them for a moment, other times releasing small amounts of her crimson coloured magic into them. As the minutes passed, Harry could noticeably start to tell that the sky was brightening. The sun would probably be out soon.

"I'm ready." Harry nodded.

Rias stepped up close to Harry with a look of deep concentration on her face. She began to glow softly once again. After a moment she extended out one of her hands and placed it on his shoulder. He gasped as the light started to envelop him. He was surprised to learn that he could actually feel it. It seemed warm and soothing to him, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that it held an inner hostility towards any it deemed an enemy.

She let her hand drop from her shoulder back to her side again. The light around him didn't fade. Her eyes were squeezed closed tightly, as her own aura began to brighten even more. Harry could feel the waves of magic come off of her now. Then without any previous indication, she thrust her hands out to either side of her.

What happened next was simply spectacular. Harry knew that there were some moments, where things just fall into place at the right time, causing wondrous results often not seen again in the person's life. This was one of such moments. Just as Rias thrust her hands outwards, the sun finally broke the horizon. It was because of this that Harry stood in awe, watching Rias, standing with her hands outstretched, back arched, and her distinctive red hair shining in the sunlight. She truly was beautiful.

Harry felt the power around them spike, as Stonehenge itself started to glow, visible even in the new morning sunlight. A moment later, even if it wasn't visible to the naked eye, Harry could feel a big wave of magic leaving the area in all directions.

"Here we go!" As she spoke, a teleportation circle flashed into existence a few feet away.

"Ok!" Harry began moving towards it.

"I've got a lock on one of the hallows… I'm not sure which. I could sense the other, but for some reason that teleportation circle refused to form."

Rias stepped up beside him in the circle, once again gripping his shoulder. With another flash of light, they were gone, leaving no physical trace that they were ever there.

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sighed as he observed the wreck that was once Number 4 Privet Drive.

"Professor, I thought you said that the wards here were impenetrable… that Harry wasn't in any danger here?" Nymphadora Tonks, young Auror and metamorphmagus asked.

"Ha! Nothing's impenetrable Tonks, and, Albus, if you actually said that, then this whole situation serves you right," Dumbledore's old friend and retired Auror, Mad Eye Moody growled.

"I'm not quite sure I said it was impenetrable Alastor, but I have to admit I did not think it possible that Voldemort and his Death Eaters would be able to break through the wards."

"Then your a bigger fool than I thought. You honestly didn't believe they could fall?"

"Of course I knew they could brought done under certain conditions, I just did not think Voldemort could do it," Dumbledore allowed himself to get lost in thought for a moment. Something big had changed the night before. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but whatever it was, it had changed the balance power in this war. He had no proof yet to support this, ignoring the sudden attack at previously thought impenetrable location, but it was just a feeling he had deep in his bones.

"So what about Harry? I-I-Is he d-dead?" Tonks lip trembled slightly at the end of her question. Dumbledore knew the young witch had taken a liking to Harry. It was obvious from the previous year she thought of him like the younger brother she never had.

Before he could answer Mad-Eye cut in, "Most likely only been captured. If he were dead the Dark Lord would have announced it to the world. They probably dragged him back to one of their bases. Most likely already being tortured now too." The young woman's eyes widened in horror at his assessment.

"I agree that he hasn't been killed, but Severus informed me that he has not been taken captive either. He said Voldemort flew into a rage as soon as he returned and killed any of the Death Eaters who survived the night, including Lucius Malfoy. Whatever happened here, Voldemort does not want it getting out."

"What do you mean survivors of the encounter?"

"It sounds like the boy grew a pair. Putting down Death Eaters like the scum they are!" Tonks turned to look at the Headmaster searchingly at Mad-Eyes words.

Dumbledore sighed sadly, "It does appear Harry was forced to take some lives last night, something I'd hoped to spare him from."

"From the sounds of it, he was overwhelmed twenty to one, with the Dark Lord there to boot! He had to do what he had to do, to survive."

"All the same I wish it hadn't been required," the trio was silent for a moment.

"So where is he now? Shouldn't we be trying to find him?" Tonks asked.

"I'm not quite sure where he is, and yes I will be tasking the order to search for him so we may offer our protection again, but for the moment I am not overly concerned."

"YOU'RE NOT CONCERNED!?"

"Calm yourself Nymphadora," Dumbledore continued on, pretending to be oblivious to the darkening of Tonks' hair at the sound of her name. "I care about Harry, but I also have had a bad habit of underestimating him. I'm sad to admit, if I had just trusted him a bit more, the whole situation at the Ministry might have been avoided and Sirius still with us. For now, I believe he can take care of himself, until he find his way back to us. Come, let's take a look inside."

As they carefully entered the building, and ascended the staircase, Dumbledore couldn't help but mull over the truth of his own words. He had underestimated Harry too much over the years. That was why he'd promised himself that he would stop this upcoming year. He would stop holding Harry back from growing up into the wonderful young man he was already becoming.

"Dear Merlin!" Tonks was staring wide eyed at the hole in Harry's bedroom wall.

"This seems to be the initial point of their attack, probably while Potter was still in bed," Moody was walking around the room looking at everything. "It appears that everything is still here. He probably didn't have time to grab anything before fleeing."

"Not everything Alastor," Dumbledore added sweeping the Elder Wand around the room to no obvious visual effect. "He took his Invisibility Cloak with him."

Tonks gasped, "Do you think that's how he escaped? Under his invisibility cloak?"

"Doesn't explain the dead Death Eaters. You wouldn't start cursing someone while trying to sneak out quietly," Mad-Eye added.

"It's possible he used his cloak, but let's not rule anything out just yet."

That's when Dumbledore door felt it. The surge of foreign magic in the room. It felt quite different than anything he'd experienced before, and to the well travelled, century old, professor that wasn't a common occurrence. He spotted it a moment later, the red seal glowing on the ground.

There was a flash of light and suddenly a girl stood before them. She wore a type of school uniform that he was unfamiliar with. She had bright violet eyes and extremely long black hair tied in a ponytail. He'd have placed her as a sixth or seventh year, if it wasn't for the fact that he knew immediately that she wasn't a witch. She wasn't even human. Things started to fall into place in Albus Dumbledore's mind. The strange magic he'd sensed around the building, and why things were changing as fast as they were.

"It's been a long time since one of your kind has graced us with their presence. My name is Albus Dumbledore, may I inquire to whom I am speaking," he noted that his two companions already had their wands leveled at the intruder.

"Albus what are-" Moody started.

The girls eyes roamed across them before fixating specifically on their wands. Her body tensed and her hands were suddenly wreathed in lightning, "Wizards!"

"We mean you know harm. I am simply investigating the disappearance of one of my students. I'd like to know why a devil like yourself is here? I have a feeling it isn't a coincidence."

The girl relaxed slightly, but didn't release her powers and maintained her defensive posture, "My name is Akeno Himejima, servant of Rias Gremory, Heir to the Gremory family. I am here attempting to locate my master, who was summoned here last night but has not returned."

"I see," Albus nodded, his mind continuing to connect all the dots. "Then I have reason to believe she may be with my student. Unfortunately, at the moment we have no idea of where they might have gone.

Akeno nodded curtly before disappearing in another flash of the same crimson sigil. It was only now that Dumbledore finally recognized it. The red rose within the circle. He'd seen it in one of the many ancient tomes in the Headmaster's library. It was the symbol of the devil clan of Gremory.

"D-devils… they haven't been seen in- Potter couldn't have-"

"As I said earlier, we all have spent too much time underestimating him. Now, I'll leave the coordination of the search effort in both your capable hands. I have some pressing business to take care of."

With that in mind, Albus Dumbledore strode out of the house purposefully. If Harry had secured the help of a devil, then he should be perfectly safe for the moment. The thought that concerned him was how fast everything was changing. With Harry summoning a devil, Voldemort would also delve deeper into ancient and dangerous magic, or perhaps start searching farther into previously ignored areas of the supernatural world. Devils weren't the only other dangerous beings out there. He needed to take care of the one Horcrux he was confident he'd finally managed to track down, before things got more difficult. Therefore, with his destination in mind, he disapparated with a large crack and a swirl of his colourful robes.