Tis day 11 of FFN's stat-starvation. I am but a poor author, pleading for scraps of reader's statistics in this stagnant wasteland. FFN sent word of rescue three days past, yet still the horizon is barren of white and violet sails. In this fortnight, when Character woes are at its most climactic, the need feels more dire than ever. And yet, what choice have we but remain on the shores of scheduled postings? Another day, I say, steady on for another day...
CW: Discussions of torture and murder
"Well," a voice beside him sighed, "I suppose this could be worse."
Harry jumped and twisted against the voice immediately, pushing his arms up in a defensive position. A cold face watched him from Melly's body, now sitting up before him. "Stay back!"
"Relax," It drawled, "I come in peace."
"Like hell you do!" In passing, Harry noted that her voice was no longer a high shrill. Still, it was deeper than Melly's, and had a distinctly American accent. "You're possessing Melly!"
"Technically true." It admitted. "Though, unlike Bill Cipher, I have her consent to do so."
Harry gritted his teeth. There's no way this thing is telling the truth! "Then bring her back! Let her say so herself!"
"Not possible, I'm afraid." Heh, sure, Monster. "She's dragged him down to her subconscious. From what she explained to me, Cipher can't take control of a person when they're awake. The plan is to keep her body conscious long enough for someone to handle his removal."
"Why you, then, and not her?"
"It's her mind. She has more power to fight him off than I do, even fractured as she is. It was the obvious choice." It pushed off from the ground. Immediately Harry backed away, grabbing the ritual knife from the floor and putting up between them. Seeing this, the occlumency monster lifted a placating hand. "Calm down, I'm not even armed."
"Yes you are." Harry stated. "Mine and Fred's wands are in your pocket."
"Hmm. I wasn't aware of that. Would you be more comfortable having them back?" It put her hands in her pockets to fish them out. Harry moved to stop it, yet found his way blocked when the two wands were pushed handle-first to his chest. "Here. Take them."
He snatched them quickly, taking a few steps back as he adjusted his position. Once Fred's wand and the knife were stashed away, he pondered over the creature. "You're telling the truth, aren't you?"
"Of course. I don't have a reason to lie."
"It's just… I'm sorry, this is a lot to take in."
"I agree. To be perfectly honest, this experience is annoying. The way her body's straining, even from this position, I suppose this is what pain feels like? I can't see why Bill Cipher wants to experience this permanently."
This conversation is as bewildering as the situation itself. Harry found himself at a loss for how to respond to the being's remark. He glanced over to the smear that was once a ritual, wincing when he saw the scattered bodies. "Before we stopped it, he put the smoke inside of MacNair."
"Hmm… just in MacNair? No one else was affected?"
"Avery, too." He gestured to the girl. "But it pulled out of her and- and you, before MacNair."
It swore silently. "Damn. She said it might have reached that point." It walked over to them. "We should bring them to wherever your doctor is. Can you bind him?"
Harry couldn't, but he gestured to the leftover rope and let the spirit do the tying. During that time, Harry went over to Rowle and shook her awake. He did so carefully, mindful of the various wounds around her torn clothing. She was at first bleary eyed, but then shrieked upon seeing Melly. It took Harry a moment to quiet her down. Then, on asking if she could levitate Avery and Runcorn, the girl burst into tears. "She broke our wands! And Sam… she killed him! I- I can't!"
"We'll… we'll come back for him." Harry promised. "Can you stand?" The answer came with a strained effort. She needed the wall for support. That wasn't good. Between everyone's injuries and the amount of unconscious or… there was no way to get them all out of the caves. "We should wait here until help comes. Fred and George went to the infirmary. I'm sure the professors will be down here soon."
The others agreed. Rowle hobbled away to be near her friends. The spirit, meanwhile, remained close to Harry. He watched the being as it observed the room with curious eyes. His own curiosity got the better of him. "Melly really made you up for her occlumency shield?"
"In a fashion. Though I'm unaware of the specific process."
"But you're like a person, and that- Cipher, too. How is that possible?"
The being hummed in thought. "The simplest explanation I can give you is that I'm more of a shade of my original self. A merger of occlumency magic with my original personality and abilities projected into it. At least, as far as I can assume, considering Cipher's own skill and power." It paused a moment in thought. "This might be a stupid question, but I was under the impression that her birth name is Melissa?"
"It is."
"Yet you call her 'Melly'. Why is that?"
"Oh." Harry looked away and scratched his head bashfully. "She has a rule that no one's allowed to call her that except for family." He looked back at it with a shrug. "When I apologised and went back to using her real name, instead, she kind of insisted I keep calling her that."
"Despite not being family?"
Harry opened his mouth, but found himself unable to answer. Fortunately the figure nodded and covered the potential silence. "Ah, I understand. Considering her plans, that makes sense."
"Plans?"
It gave him a sly smile. "You'll see, one day."
"POTTER?!" A distant voice called out from the cavern hall.
"That's one of the professors. DOWN HERE!" He called back.
Rowle's scream followed. "SOMEBODY HELP US!"
The calls spurred the running steps faster. Two bodies rounded the corner, revealing Professors Snape and Sprout to the disaster before them. Seeing the unconscious bodies, they beelined towards Rowle and the others.
"Are you alright?" Sprout asked.
"What happened!" Snape demanded.
"It was Bennett!" Rowle cried. "She went mad and tortured us! She killed Sam!"
"What?!"
"It wasn't-" Harry cut himself off from speaking further. Unfortunately for him, that only brought Snape down on them with a murderous glare.
"Explain yourselves!"
The demand went unanswered. Harry looked to the spirit, who briefly returned the glance before pondering how to answer. But how could they? How could either possibly explain what happened without sounding completely mad?
Back at the bodies, Sprout leaned down and felt Runcorn's pulse. "She's right. He's dead!"
The truth and their silence had Snape's face go red with rage. "Answer me now or I will pry the information out from the both of you!"
"Of course you will." The spirit deadpanned, to Harry's horror. "If there's one thing you're good at, Master Snape, it's prying into the minds of children without any care of the consequences."
Harry stared, dumbstruck. Professor Snape, on the other hand, went completely white. A spell fired from Snape before Harry had a chance to process it. Wind swept past as the spirit dove behind Harry while the spell shot through where it once stood.
"Get away from it, Potter!"
"Severus! What are you doing?! She's a child!"
"That's no child! She's being possessed by a demon!"
"A demon?!" Sprout asked incredulously. "Severus, you're not thinking straight, that's madness-"
"No, no. He's telling the truth." The spirit replied, waving its hand casually as if it were any ordinary fact.
"What?!" This time it was Harry who spoke in shock. "But you said-"
"That I'm a shade of my original self, who resides in Hell." It stated. "Even Bill Cipher, as I understand it, is known as a dream demon. Though his realm is entirely different from my own."
"Bill Cipher." Snape half-whispered fearfully under his breath. "You're in league with him?"
"Most definitely not," It huffed. "He is, however, responsible for all of the damages here. I'm only here at Melissa's request while she fights him off."
The room fell into silence as each human tried to process the information given to them. Demons; Hell; the blood, dead, and unconscious in the room. How can anyone process that and maintain sane in their knowledge of the world?
"Severus…" Sprout spoke slowly. "You know what she's talking about, of who caused this?"
The man gritted his teeth before responding, eyes fixed onto the demon. "Not here. We need to escort them to the infirmary. Potter, is it armed?"
Harry shook his head. "No. Her wand's broken and I have mine and Fred's wands. She gave them to me."
Snape glared suspiciously at the demon. The being, in turn, stared back at him uncaringly. "Then we'll leave. You! Try anything and I'll blast you back to Hell where you belong!"
The order appeared to amuse the demon. "An odd threat. Not that it matters to me either way, but you do realize that I'm attached to a fourteen year old child, right?"
"I have my ways. Don't forget, I've faced you all before."
"Not me." It grinned. "Though I have to admit, it was hilarious when River shot you in the leg."
The red face returned. "ENOUGH! WE'RE LEAVING! NOW!"
By the time they reached the hospital wing it was already populated with both Weasleys, Professor Lockhart, Professor McGonagall, and Headmaster Dumbledore. As Harry's group entered the room in solemn procession, it was clear from McGonagall's look of loathing at Melly that the Twins already told them their side of the story. Yet it was Dumbledore's breaking of silence that alarmed Harry the most.
"I trust that the demon has been dealt with, Severus?"
McGonagall whipped her head, gaping at the headmaster. "Albus, surely you don't actually believe the girl's been possessed?! The boys are in shock! Clearly she's gone mad!"
Dumbledore didn't deign the accusations with an answer. He had eyes only for Snape. "Severus?"
"The situation is… complicated. This thing," he gestured to Melly, "claims to be one I did not face last year."
Melly's head tipped, a smirk at her lips. "How do you do?"
"...Perhaps it's best that we start from the beginning."
As Madam Pomfrey got the fallen Slytherin students to bed, Rowle began the tale. By her words, Melly caught the four unawares last night in the dungeons. They awoke in the caves and, from there, were subjected to curses and unforgivables for hours on end. What the specifics entailed, Rowle avoided mention. Only stating that she used strange magic and "kept finding new ways" to use the imperius curse as time went on. Rowle briefly mentioned when Harry arrived on the scene, far more focused on the death of her friend. With the shock of his death and the extension of her torture, it became too much to bear; causing her to pass out.
Those hearing the tale went white or ashen as Rowle explained the ordeal. The only exceptions being Snape and the demon -both of whom appeared more outraged than anything else- and Madam Pomfrey, who hoped to distract herself by focusing on Avery. She cast diagnostic spells on the girl, speaking to her softly between each attempt. When Rowle finished her side of the story, Pomfrey approached Dumbledore.
"Avery is awake, but she is completely unresponsive. If I cannot find the cause we'll need to transfer her to St. Mungos to see a specialist."
"That won't be of much help." Said the demon.
The group narrowed their eyes at it. Lockhart attempted to boast that he could find a cure, but it was ignored as Dumbledore rose to the ominous comment. "I take it that you know the cause of Miss Avery's condition?"
"Unfortunately so. From what Melissa and Harry explained to me, the demon torturing them, Bill Cipher, used Avery as the sacrifice to create a horcrux."
A horcrux?!
"A horcrux?!" Dumbledore's eyes grew wide.
"What is a horcrux, Albus?"
"It is... forbidden magic. An act of such infamy that it is spoken of in only the darkest corners of the magical world."
"What does it do?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore frowned. "Ah, Mister Potter, you are far too young to hear of such dark magic-"
"It splits your soul and puts one half into a vessel as a way to cheat death." The demon answered casually. The adults of the room gaped at it, yet the being simply rolled its eyes. "He's twelve, not five. He can handle it."
"...So a horcrux is… part of a person's soul?" That explains it! Riddle's diary had his personality because it was a person! It was half of him! But wait- "Why use another person, then?"
"Because the ability to create a horcrux requires the ultimate act of evil." Dumbledore answered. "To end a life. To kill another person."
"HA!" The demon barked with laughter. Though, on seeing the glares about the room, it raised her brows. "Oh, wait, you're serious? You genuinely think that murder is the act of ultimate evil?"
"Of course it is!" McGonagall shouted.
"Lady, I've tortured damned souls for aeons. Trust me when I say that murder's a drop in the bucket of human depravity. Let's be realistic, if that was the case, you wouldn't be working with him." It directed its head towards Snape.
Snape growled at the demon. "Mind your tongue, beast!"
The demon put a hand to her heart with a faux scandalized expression. "Sorry? Am I supposed to believe that you never killed anyone when you were a Death Eater?"
"What?!"
"That's enough!" Dumbledore ordered.
"Fine." It scoffed. "But the original point stands. Murder isn't what makes a horcrux ritual so horrendous. That's just the first step to put a tear in your soul and prime it for extraction."
Lockhart pursed his lips. "Then what makes it so awful?"
"Ritual magic requires equivalent exchange." It answered simply. "To make alterations to one soul, another has to be sacrificed."
In the back of Harry's mind, an eerie shriek of burning smoke echoed in his ears.
Pomfrey equally looked horror struck. "Then you're saying Miss Avery is..."
"Without a soul. It's gone and destroyed completely."
Harry struggled to understand. "But…she's alive."
"Her body is alive, but left a shell. When it dies there will be no next life. No Heaven. No Hell. No option available because the soul no longer exists."
McGonagall shivered at the thought. "That's monstrous!"
"Like I said, it's the ultimate act of evil." It flicked briefly into a smirk as the group absorbed the horrifying implications. Then the expression dropped, eyes glancing over to the filled beds. "Of course, the depravity isn't over. As the boy failed to make clear, Cipher wasn't using an object to become immortal, he used a person. Specifically that boy, MacNair."
The group jumped, whipping their heads to MacNair. Rowle burst into tears and shrieked in denial. Dumbledore's voice spoke gravely. "Then the demon is possessing both of them now?"
"I'm not sure. Either he pushed most of Melissa into MacNair to keep her body, or he pushed most of himself instead, for his use. We weren't sure which he did. The fractures of the extraction reached all levels of her mind."
After spending the conversation in silence, Fred spoke. "He was going to keep her."
"What?"
"Cipher said his plan was to do it to her family, not on them." He nodded to MacNair. "He was going to kill them and fake her death by-" he went green, "he was going to cut them into pieces!"
"Gracious!"
Hand to his mouth, Harry's knees buckled. Professor Sprout came to his side. "Mister Potter, are you alright? What's wrong?"
Harry shook his head. "It- it needed three people."
"I don't understand."
"He had to kill someone, make a sacrifice, and make a horcrux. He needed three other people!"
"It's horrible, I know-"
"No. That's not what he's saying." The demon closed its eyes briefly, fists tightening as it spoke. "Melissa is an only child."
"So it wouldn't have just been her parents. He would have killed everyone!" Tears formed in Harry's eyes. The realization was too horrendous, despicable beyond words. Overwhelmed, his stomach turned, sick spilling out of him as thoughts turned to the unimaginable. Next to him, Professor Sprout rubbed circles on his back, speaking soft, reassuring words as she tried to soothe the pain. He leaned into the touch, uncaring of the dribbles of sick on him as he hugged the professor tightly. She squeezed him back, reassuring him as tears drenched her shoulder.
Above them, the conversation continued.
"What can you tell us about Cipher?"
"Little, I'm afraid. He's a demon from another dimension, able to enter bodies when they're asleep or by making deals with them. He's a sadist to the core who enjoys the pain and misery of others. Apparently, at his full power, he's nearly unstoppable."
"But nearly is not completely."
"No. Melissa is certain he's been defeated in the past. She said she'd search for the knowledge in her memories once I take control; but with having to battle Cipher in the process I doubt she's having much opportunity to do so."
"Then what can we do?"
The demon tapped its foot. "I should be restrained. MacNair, as well, just in case. Once I'm unconscious either Melissa or Cipher will have the opportunity to take over. Hopefully she'll have a solution."
"Very well. If you'd please..." Dumbledore gestured to one of the beds. The demon obliged, laying on top of the covers. Dumbledore conducted a spell to bind it to the bed. As it did, a frown formed on its face. The headmaster did not make much note of the change, focusing on his work. "That should suffice. Are you ready?"
It eyed him with a bemused expression. "I think it would be best if we use a potion rather than a spell. Madam, if you could assist us?"
Pomfrey turned to Snape. A quick exchange passed between them. After hearing Snape's assurances, she retrieved a tiny, partly-filled phial of sleeping draught."
"This amount will give you a few minutes of sleep. That should be enough to allow for Miss Bennett to return."
"Here's hoping." It opened its mouth wide, allowing Pomfrey to tip the contents down her throat. Within moments its eyes began to drop. "So this is sleep. How... peculiar…"
Holding their breath, the group watched as sleep overtook the demon. Hoping against all hope that the next person to open those eyes is human.
