Disclaimer: Refer to first chapter.
"I can't believe this shit." Two large men in leather jackets and bandanas tied over their heads played pool in an empty bar, a glance throughout it proving not even the bartender was present. Didn't stop the two of them from downing more than a dozen beers between them from the bottles strewn across the floor. "Who the fuck does that guy think he is?"
"He's the guy who wants to kill us." The reply of one made the other snort as they took their shot, a striped ball rebounding off the wall and drifting towards the middle of the table. "You didn't hear about what happened to the others, did you?"
"Hell no. I was getting this place empty." A gesture around was all it took from the one who had snorted as he handed off the cue.
"He wiped them out." He lined up his shot as he spoke. "Came out of nowhere and ripped half apart within the first minute." A crack came when a solid ball was sent forward and into another. "Dragged away the other half."
"Shit." He accepted the cue with an almost pensive look on his face. He didn't line up the shot. "Why'd he do that?"
"Who the fuck knows with that freak." The man shrugged, the leather of the jacket crinkling as he did so before resting his hands on the edge of the table. "All I know is that I'm getting out of here quick."
"Fuck that, I want to know when we can get the fuck out of these skin suits." A grimace crossed his face as he took in a deep breath. "They stink."
"What the hell did you think this shit would smell like?" He reached down, drawing out a bloodstained beer bottle from below the table. "I dragged them off a couple fresh corpses."
"Fuck you." His shot was better, his aim getting the right corner pocket acquainted with a striped ball. "When are we leaving this dump?"
"Once the others get back, we'll give them all another hour." He snatched the cue from his hand. "After that they can get to the gate by themselves." He placed down his bottle and lined up his shot." I'm not getting caught by that freak." A solid crack followed his statement.
"I'm with you there." He nodded to his words and took the cue before pausing. "Where'd you send them to anyway?"
"Told them to get some skin and come back." He shrugged his shoulders as he picked up his beer. "Don't know where the fuck they got to from that."
"Dumbasses."
"Yeah."
The two Demons turned back to their game, killing time as they waited for the rest of their gang. It was not a group of brotherhood and was more akin to something born out of necessity than anything else once Mundus was defeated months ago. Limbo City had went to hell, well Limbo at least, since then.
A bike pulled up outside the blood soaked bar, the results of "getting this place empty" as one of the Demons had put it. It immediately gained the attention of the two inside. The pool cue was set down as both moved towards the door. The skin on their hands beginning to peel back to unveil the claws they hid as they did so. Both slowly approached the door, eyes swiftly turning coal black in a blink as their fangs were bared.
"That them?"
The answer came when the door was kicked off the hinges, flying into one of them and throwing them into the wall behind them. The other, not having faced an impromptu flight, ripped itself out of the suit of skin it had on with a lunge. It threw itself towards the man responsible only to run right into the muzzle of a jet black gun. It was pressed into its chest and two rounds surrounded by the cocktail of Demonic and Angelic energy punched through it with ease. The end result of such an impact was dropping it to the ground before the man was a blur. The angelic head of a chain hooked onto the Demon pulling itself free from under the door and bringing the man to it. He landed on the door, breaking it beneath his boots, before pulling the Demon up. The black gun was held in his free hand and a warning shot was fired into it's leg. The demon screeched in pain before a second shot followed by a third ripped through the limb.
"Five seconds you little fuck! Where! Is! She!" His only answer was a pained roar and a swipe from claws that he didn't even bother dodging, the Demon Hunter not wasting time with words then as four bullets ripped through the Demon's skull before he moved on to the next. He pulled it up from where it had collapsed to the ground with a demonic hook and dragged it over to him. The demon's black slammed into the wall and he held it there with one hand as the other raised the black gun to his chest.
"Do you want to end up like your fucking friend or do you want to tell me where Mundus' cronies took her?" His only answer was a low rumbling laughter from the Demon. Even now it was mocking him and his anger before both of his hands lashed out. His gun was forgotten in favor of tearing open the Demon's head with his bare hands. It was an easy thing to ignore the way the blood splattered across him. It would disappear once the piece of shit was dead.
"You little son of a bitch!" He pulled and the Demon was no more as its dissolving corpse struck the ground.
The last two Demons he had tracked down dissolved away into the air, taking with them any chance he had of finding Kat now.
"FUCK!" He needed to kill something. Like one of those assholes who started this whole mess, especially the one that had left the letter for Kat in the first place.
"We should remove James from the school. Regardless of the situation we find ourselves in, he is clearly a threat to all of the students we will soon be accepting if he lost control of himself enough to threaten Headmaster Dumbledore." Severus's voice carried across the table said Wizard had called the impromptu staff meeting at. Slow nods followed the words of the potion master even as the aged Headmaster slowly shook his head and one hand briefly moved to his shortened and blackened beard.
The entire room was in less than stellar shape, cracks and the like from deflected spells and only recently was one of the large tables thrown out in pieces after it had found itself caught in the middle of the rather vicious duel between two powerful Wizards. James's transfiguration skills remained top notch to create such a myriad of creatures. The bloodlust must have been a special bit of charm work dear Lily had taught him once they had left Hogwarts. The numerous curses each had made use of with their claws and teeth? A trait from Black's more private family spell collection.
"My dear friends I believe we are all overreacting to what happened when James was only acting as a father must. I must commend him truly for pressing me to such an extent as well during our short but intense duel. He has given me quick a few new observations to think on when I have my time from his stellar wand work. Also, I rather believe I needed a shave at some point and James has only at last provided the proper incentive to make me do so." His tone was light but his eyes were conflicted. James had been close to killing him once Katherine had collapsed while crying out for her mother. Admittedly the situation wasn't the best with his wand drawn. It had lead the Auror to believe he had done something to his daughter while he was gone. The dueling ability he had been renowned for had not at all dulled during the time of relative peace they now experienced nor his own spiral into depression that they had all been able to see the past few years since Lily had died. He was perhaps greater now than he was during any of his and his wife's famed duels once they had finished Hogwarts. "I, as the wounded party, find there is no need to punish a man only concerned for his daughter's well being. Even I must admit the situation he walked into was not at all very much to my favor with the limited information he possessed of my intentions. He reacted as any Auror would to what he saw and even more so as a father must when his daughter fell to a state of unconsciousness."
"That does not excuse the fact he cast an Unforgivable. He could have killed you Albus!" Minerva was in a rare rage it seemed but still a silver of her true concern for his life slipped into her voice and at that the aged wizard sighed. Minerva was truly as ferocious as a lioness when it came to protecting those close to her. He at many times considered her the reincarnation of Godric Gryffindor with her ferocity despite her age. "We can't ignore someone casting a Killing Curse, especially against you! He needs to be sent out before he does any more harm to either us or, even worse, the students themselves! I am deeply afraid for what he would do when Ms. Potter is threatened in his eyes." Dumbledore could not deny her points or the ones she had yet to make. Her stone eyes showed she had yet one more thing to say. "Will you still call it a 'father's duty' once he kills a student? What about when he goes after a teacher for hurting his daughter?"
"Now, now Minerva, this is quite the overreaction from you." Albus considered it the best idea to deal with the most pressing concern. James had jumped into the duel aiming to kill and the sooner he could refute that claim, the idea of him being dangerous would drain away with it. "The Killing Curse harmlessly struck a stone instead of myself as I am very much alive. I see no reason why to make such a great deal out of all of this unless you all truly miss my beard. I agree it was incredibly well maintained but it is more like the parting of an old and dear friend now. Not all things last as long as we wish them to." Even as he spoke light of what had happened not to long ago, deep down, Dumbledore could sympathize with James. He would have done the same for his own sister if he and her had been placed in James and Katherine's shoes, let alone his own daughter if he had one. His father had already showed the lengths he was willing to go for his children and paid the price. "Besides Minerva, he gave this old man a rather exciting time in the duel we had however dangerous it may have seemed to all of you. I am also very much unharmed from it, my pride in my beard not withstanding of course. I am also, to my knowledge, alive and well."
"I see you will not be drawn away from this Albus." Minerva mouth turned into a tight line for a moment before she slowly shook her head. "I won't try to move a stubborn troll more than I would debate this with you. I will keep my eye on James and if this situation ever occurs again I will not bother speaking with you. I will inform the Ministry of what he does and let Amelia deal with him."
"I cannot ask more of you. Simply give James a chance and you will see he's only doing what a father must." He could concede to those terms. "I thank you for your trust Minerva."
"Don't believe I won't remain cautious."
"At the very least he should remain separated from Ms. Potter. At least until such a time he can properly control himself in situations involving her." Severus's words were sound under that vein of thought, sound if terribly impractical when one truly knew how far James Potter was willing to go for his long lost daughter. "Frankly, knowing Potter so well, despite my distaste towards him, he will take decades to ever reach such a level of self control. It is unlikely being in his care is even safe for a young woman. Ms. Potter seems quite old from the...activities I and Minerva found her participating in upon our arrival."
"You have better luck getting me to ever actually like you Snivellous than getting James away from Katherine. We all know without a doubt that neither of those two things is ever going to happen." Sirius Black made his presence known, entering from a side door and in casual clothing. It would seem that James had called in for help at some point since they had begun their meeting. One of the last Blacks, no matter the reason behind why he still had the name, stopped at the opposite end of the table and eyes lacking warmth locked with those of Dumbledore. "Now Albus, let's cut the fat and move right on to business. You know why I'm here. Where's my goddaughter?"
"She is of course recovering from her injuries in the Hospital Wing under care of the best healers of St. Mungo's I've called and sworn to secrecy to treat her. She is in the best possible care I can provide Sirius, of that you must find it in yourself to trust me." Dumbledore was not lying, he had called everyone he could think of and implored them to call anyone else to come treat the young (who wasn't such when compared to someone as old as him?) woman that he now had in his care. He had also let it slip that someone should come by to "clean up" the Great Hall.
"I'll believe that when I see it." Sirius never did trust very easy after Lily's death. None of the Marauders did in the end.
"Then I implore that you head to see her with Minerva. She can tell you more while I handle the rest of my duties here."
"I'd prefer Snivellus. At least he won't try to lie to me while we go there and it looks like my old professor should be here talking sense to you." Sirius jerked his chin towards the black haired man to the right of him, the black robed man offering a sneer. It seemed to be his default expression when it came to any of his old schoolmates, especially the Marauders. "What do you say Slytherin?
"As much as I abhor you Black, I would never fall so low to use lies. The truth hurts much worse when it comes to you." Snape rose from his seat, nodding towards the Headmaster. "I will return shortly Albus. I doubt even Black can get lost on his way to the infirmary but if such a thing happens I will send word to you of my imminent, if late, arrival."
"Just lead the way already." Sirius held back any insults he seemed to have for Snape, either that or he was too concerned with his goddaughter to think of any.
Albus remained silent as he watched the two men leave the hall before he turned back to the teachers remaining present, now simply his Deputy Headmistress and the three other Heads of House.
"It would seem that Katherine will have quite the eventful wake up soon enough." His tone tried to be light but there was nothing light of the situation they found themselves in now.
Katherine Potter had been returned to Hogwarts but none of them could truly say what condition or how wise of a decision it had been to even do so. The earlier "activities" Severus had mentions. A Nephilim serving her...it was terrifying to even begin to imagine the amount of power she must wield to bind such a powerful creature to her service.
'These next few years will most definitely be very interesting.' Dumbledore would later consider his statement a great understatement. Interesting didn't do any of it justice.
AN: I feel this thing is either developing or slowly burning to death...weird. Anybody feel the same way?