January 22nd, 2011 Hogwarts, Scotland, 6:00 PM BST

After several hours of extremely acrobatic superhuman sex (the whole shadow tentacles thing fell apart after hour one, my head started getting fuzzy) we cleaned up and headed for the abandoned classroom where we'd agreed to meet everyone else after the game for a debrief on what we'd found.

As they approached, I could hear Blaise and Tracey arguing. My best friend was clearly worked up as he came within earshot, because I heard him all but shouting. "I'm not saying this because of some bullshit house pride, it's just common sense Potter's catch was completely invalid. You can't use your mouth to catch the snitch."

"And yet, he did." Insisted Tracey. "So clearly you can. Besides, I call it fair cop, he almost died when his broom went wild." She shot Daphne an impressed glance. "I still have no idea how you knew the countercharm to that curse. Or that it even WAS a curse."

My girlfriend sniffed arrogantly. "I happen to be an expert on curses thank you very much. I spent most of my life studying them. Though that was more accurately a jinx. We needed him in the game to stretch things out for Shane and Seras, so I made it happen. Though I may have ALSO cast a blindness curse on him when I was doing it."

Tracey hooted in amusement. "No wonder he almost choked on the thing. I'm surprised he even got close. You curse Diggory too?"

"Of course." Said Daphne in a self satisfied tone. "How else was he supposed to keep from giving Potter the game. I'm just glad it worked. I may know a fair bit about curses, but I'm still getting started with casting them. That blindness curse is the only one I know that doesn't show obvious signs of being cast. Aside from a really nasty toenail inverting hex that wouldn't have done much."

I stepped out into the hall with a smirk. "Sounds like you guys had a fun time." They all jumped, with the exception of Suzie who bolted down the hall and threw herself into my arms with a happy squeal. I laughed and caught her as she snuggled up to me.

"I was so worried something might have happened." She said against my neck. "I'm glad you're alright."

I felt slightly bad about being balls deep in a busty blonde while she was worrying, but it had been training so I called it a wash. "We're fine." I said with a smile. "Though we did run into a fairly nasty surprise and had to take a detour to consult an expert. We only managed to get identify two more obstacles."

"Anything interesting?" Said Blaise as he followed me into the classroom and dropped into a chair. "Because the game was a bit mad. You should have seen it. Someone cursed Potter, and while Daphne was trying to reverse it someone else set Snape on fire."

Daphne huffed. "It was that twit Granger, I keep telling you. I swear I saw her corpulent arse poking up from behind the bleachers."

"There's no way." Blaise said firmly. "She's the opposite of fun. She wouldn't set a teacher on fire. I'd have believed she was down there slobbing his knob before I bought that. You were imagining things." He winked at me. "Careful Ryan, your girl seems awfully fixated on Granger's bum."

I shrugged. "It's hard not to be. It's enormous." I wagged a finger at my seething princess. "But if you get a crack at that ass and don't invite me I'd be so offended."

She sneered. "If you want to bugger the muggleborn slag so badly just buy a few rare books and toss them in front of her. She'll bend over so fast you'll get whiplash. But stop distracting us, you mentioned a detour, what happened."

So I told them. Valkyrie, the Cleaver, I didn't mention Seras and I fucking, but my abrupt change of subject apparently tipped her off because she shot my Rook a suspicious glance. When I finished, she glanced unhappily at Tracey, who nodded before turning to me. "If we only have eyes on two more obstacles, we'll need to consult someone with more information. I have a friend who's in with one of the secret societies in Slytherin."

"I'd hardly call that fat breasted cow a friend of yours." Sulked Daphne. "You just happen to know each other as children. You hardly even talk."

Tracey smirked at my obviously jealous girlfriend being adorable but shook her head, refocusing on me. "Lily Moon and I go back. She has an in with the Maiden Sisterhood, the only all female society on campus. The Carrows are in it too, but they're both bitches, so Lily will have to do. Chances are good they have an idea of what's further into the corridor, at least if what you said about the societies being interested is true. I know at least one alumna who is supposedly a seer."

That wasn't a bad idea. I'd never considered pumping them for information, mostly because the Skull and Dagger, the only ones I'd met directly, were unbearable assholes who probably wanted to kill me almost as badly as they wanted to stay out of my way.

"Alright." I said finally. "Set up a meeting. I get the feeling shit is heating up in the search for the stone. We need to be the first ones there. I refuse to let cloak guy get it, and I have uses for the elixir." I was also counting on the fact that if we got our hands on the stone, cloak guy would probably come to us.

It wasn't the safest plan, but we could control how the information leaked and set a trap for him. I knew I could take that bastard with some setup time, especially with my new powers to help pin him down for me and Seras to act as muscle.

After we finished meeting, the others all headed out to join up with some of our housemates for an afterparty, but Daphne and Susan stayed behind. As soon as everyone else was gone. Susan turned to Daphne and held out a hand. "Ten galleons."

Cursing, my blonde Slytherin princess dug into her pouch and produced the coins. At my confused look, Suzie beamed at me. "I bet Daphne that you and Seras would consummate your relationship during the quidditch game. I've been pushing her at you for the last month." After secreting the coins away in her robes, she bolted forward to wrap the vampire in a hug. "Welcome! I'm so jealous that you're already in the peerage."

Seras looked…confused. In retrospect, the fact that Suzie was trying to get me laid wasn't TOO shocking. She was a total sweetie, but her ideas on what was 'nice' were occasionally a bit odd when it came to me. Not that I was complaining, nor did I think Seras would. As devils we were both more than a little hedonistic, and the sex had been great.

"... thanks?" Said my Rook in confusion. Her eyes flicked to Daphne. "You're not upset about this, are you?"

Daphne just rolled her eyes. "He was up front about the whole 'devil harem' thing, and he cured my sister of her fatal blood curse. Plus, if we're being honest, there's only so much one woman can take. I don't mind sharing if it means I don't spend every morning with a pronounced limp."

"See!" Said Suzie cheerfully. "Everyone is happy." She practically skipped over to peck me on the cheek. "Night Ryan!" Grabbing Seras, she started dragging her towards the door. "Come on, lets head back to the common room, the house is probably a bit down and we should try to cheer them up. You can tell me all about your first time with Ryan!" Judging by the panic on Seras's face, she wasn't nearly as enthused about that idea, but even my Rook couldn't resist Suzie, so she let herself get dragged away.

"You know." Said Daphne thoughtfully. "I can never decide if I should be protective of her or just terrified."

I just laughed, stepping up next to her and pulling her against me. "I'm usually both. But then again, that's a line I walk with you too." I drifted into silence for a minute, just holding her as we watched the door. "Are you really ok with all this? I know it's a lot."

She shrugged. "I'm not thrilled. But I wasn't lying about anything I said. You're not human, and in terms of hedonistic needs you're a bit much for either of us. Plus… Seras cares about you. I like knowing she has your back. I'm already sharing you with Susan, what's one more? I trust you won't be adding any more girls for a while?" Her tone turned sharp at that, and I had to laugh.

"Please." I snorted. "Three of you will be hard enough to juggle. I have some ideas for possible peerage members, but most of them are male at this point. And the ones who aren't I can wait. I'm going to live for ten thousand years, there's no real rush."

Her expression turned a bit worried. "What about the others? You were talking about using the pawns on them. Tracey could probably handle it, but what if Hannah decides she's obsessed with the idea of having sex with you? That would really fuck things up with Theo. Is there some way to prevent the whole lust thing?"

I nodded. "I'm going to talk to Vincent about it. I don't think peerages are exclusively harems, so there has to be a way around it. For now we just need to get that stone. We can start them on the elixir if need be. I'm already planning to give some to my mom."

Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd understood the whole lust thing right anyway. Based on Seras's reaction, I didn't think it was some kind of obsession with having sex with me, as much as an obsession with having sex, AND with me. Hannah would probably be fine just breaking Theo's hips and Tracey could find some guys to fuck. They would both be loyal to me, but I was pretty sure the sexual aspect and the loyalty weren't one and the same.

I wanted to confirm that before reincarnating anyone else though. I really was going to talk to Vincent. "I suppose you're also interested in Moon." She said sourly. "She's not…stupid. And she's much more bearable than Granger. Is she one of the possible pieces you were considering?"

"Bishop." I confirmed. "But that would be down the line. I'm also considering asking Skulduggery to be one of my Bishops. He's old and strong, and he's got a hell of a knack for magic if Val is to be believed. Plus I figure there's a decent chance being reincarnated will fix the whole…skeleton thing. Which is objectively a win."

She snickered at that. "I wouldn't be so sure he'd be interested in that. He's kind of weird. Still, he's a good pick if he accepts. I assume you're also considering Val and Tanith?"

"Eventually." I admitted. "Like I said, no rush. And once again, pretty decent chance not EVERY female in the peerage is going to want to sleep with me." I paused, considering that. "Though I AM incredibly good looking."

That got a snort of laughter and an elbow in my ribs. I laughed along with her, and then pulled her tighter against me as we relaxed into one of the chairs in the classroom. Things were kind of crazy and up in the air, but they weren't bad by any means.

I had three girlfriends now apparently, and a lead on how to keep even my human friends alive long term. This year had been wild so far, but definitely in a good way. All I had left to take care of was cloak guy. Once he was gone, we'd be safe and free to live our lives. I almost felt sorry for the poor bastard. Almost.

January 24th, 2011 Hogwarts, Scotland, 9:00 PM BST

I was going to another meeting. Granted, it was for a good reason, but still, I was getting sick of meetings. Meetings about meetings about meetings. I felt like the Grinch in that scene where he was pitching about lines.

It wasn't like I had a choice. I'd been raised muggle, which meant I had to consult people all the damned time about what I didn't know, but I was looking forward to being well informed enough to just make plans and execute them.

Alas, today was not that day. Today I had to convince a busy goth to help me get my hands on an ancient alchemical treasure before cloak guy got it or one of the other societies grew the balls to try for it.

I hadn't come alone. Daphne,Tracey, and Seras had all come. Susie had wanted to ride along too, but we'd all decided this would be a bit dangerous, so only necessary attendees were allowed. Daphne had bullied her way onto that list out of concern for Tracey, but no way was I bringing my cinnamon roll to meet a group of mysterious illuminati witches.

Rather than an abandoned classroom as we would usually use (Hogwarts had dozens of them, we were far from capacity) Lily wanted to meet us in a remote clearing at the edge of the forbidden forest. Since we were asking her for the favor, we agreed, though I did a flyover and scoped the place for traps before we actually showed up.

When we arrived, we found Lily Moon, looking her usual bored self, sitting in a conjured chair reading a book. To my surprise, the Carrow twins stood to either side of her, the pretty brunettes were scanning the dark around them as we approached, but since they lacked my senses and especially my dark sight, they didn't notice us until we were right on top of them.

Daphne and Tracey were holding my arms, letting my guide them, and I was able to sneak us around the perimeter of their little sentry post. When we reached a spot close enough to talk, I cleared my throat, and the twins spun on their heels, wands drawn.

"Peace." I said, putting my hands up. "No need to be so jumpy. It was your idea to meet out here."

Lily, unlike her guards, didn't seem particularly surprised. She just closed her book with a sigh, looking up at us. "Lord Black. We meet again. I was surprised to hear from Tracey that you wished to speak." She paused. "Well, about actual business anyway, I was expecting you to seek me out for…other reasons."

Daphne sneered. "He doesn't need you for that, Moon. Even if he wanted a big breasted bimbo he's already got Seras."

"Oi!" Snapped my vampire. "I'm right here you nit. Don't project your body issues onto me."

I neglected to mention that Daphne's figure was likely to fill out after she got her evil piece. She'd notice eventually, and the whole subtle long term shapeshifting thing was weirdly subconscious, so it would probably work better if she didn't know.

The dark haired girl smiled wryly at Tracey. "It's good to see you again. It's been too long. I was happy to get your message, even if you brought some…less than desirable elements with you to this meeting." She cast a withering glance at Daphne, who just sneered back at her, though I did see her hand twitch a bit like she wanted to go for her wand.

Ignoring all the sniping, I gave Lily a wry smile. "I take it as a good sign you agreed to meet. I assume you know what this is about?"

She smirked, holding up the book she was reading. 'A Treatise on the twelve uses of Dragon's blood' By Albus Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel. I rolled my eyes at her lack of subtlety, but was amused nonetheless.

"So." She said, standing up to face me. "What exactly can we do for you, and what do we get out of it? Tracey implied you needed help with something, and since we know you were trying to get past the obstacles, I'm curious as to why you chose us. Alternatively, I wonder why you think, if you are indeed searching for the answers I suspect, I would help you?"

"Simple." I responded with a smile. "Because we can get it. And if we do, I'd be willing to share some of that elixir with you. You may not know exactly what I'm capable of, but I'm sure you know I'm dangerous. Not to mention, you keep your pretty little hands clean. Anything happens to me in the attempt and there's no connection. I assume that's why you arranged to meet out here."

She gave me a nod of respect. "Not JUST a pretty face, then." She chuckled. "Yes, deniability is important. Hesia and Flora are old friends of mine, though we don't advertise the fact. But yes, I have heard tales of your capabilities. Spending time with Tanith Lowe and the Skeleton Detective tends to attract attention."

I raised an eyebrow. "You admitting to having sorcerer connections? I thought that was a no-no in wizardland."

Her laugh was high and surprisingly light. "Not all wizards and witches have forgotten our origins, Lord Black. There are factions of witches still active amongst the sorcerers, just as the warlocks welcome those of our particular magical nature."

That was interesting, but more interesting was the implication she'd just made. "I knew wizards were a subset of sorcerers, but you make it sound like they came first."

"Of course they did." She said, her tone shifting to something more excited. She really was a huge nerd. "Did you know that all muggleborns are technically atavistic descendants of wizarding families? Every muggleborn has wizard blood at some point in their family lineage. The purebloods hate when it's brought up and it's considered a fringe theory, but I've done the research. It's why muggleborns are so rare. So tell me, if magic breeds true, where did it COME from?"

I'd honestly never even considered that. Who cared where magic came from, it was just a weird power I had now. "So… where does magic come from then?" I couldn't help but ask, even if I was getting sidetracked.

She just shrugged. "I have no idea. Even the sorcerers are divided on that. Some claim it comes from the True Name, which gives a connection to magic itself, but they also claim we don't HAVE True Names, and yet we can somehow use magic anyway. Whatever the case, it's clear from records that the first witches and wizards came from sorcerer families."

Val had talked to me about that. Names. Sorcerers had three. The given name, the one your parents gave you at birth. The taken name, the one you took for yourself when you started practicing magic, which sealed your given name so people couldn't use it to target you with spells and shit, and your True Name. The source of your power. If you learned your true name you could manifest power on the same level as a god.

I hadn't known that witches and wizards supposedly didn't have True Names though. I'd wondered why we weren't vulnerable to curses or spells delivered via given name, because none of us took one, but I hadn't figured that was the reason.

That was all fascinating stuff, but I hadn't come out to the woods in the middle of the night to have 'why are we here' discussions with pretty goth girls. "We're getting off track." I said, cutting off this line of discussion. "I'd love to pick this up another time, it's interesting as hell, but we have other business."

Her face closed down and she receded a bit, smoothing her uniform skirt as she exhaled slowly. "Apologies. It's not often I get to discuss my passions with others. My area of interest is… niche. My point, before I got sidetracked, was that we have resources among the sorcerers, my society especially has close ties to the Brides of Blood Tears. So we are indeed aware of your exploits."

"And?" I asked, throwing up my hands. "Is that enough to reassure you about working with us? Or did you bring your friends there so we could fight?"

Shaking her head, she gave a small smile. "No. Not unless you pushed things. Hestia and Flora are excellent duellists. Their father was a DADA master, and he trained them both in different but complimentary facets of the art. Together they're devastatingly effective. That said, perhaps not effective enough to deal with you. They're here for my protection."

I very carefully did not make a condom joke, tempting as it may have been. "So what's the verdict then?"

"We'll give you the information." She said after mulling things over. "I'm not exactly the leader of the Maidens, but my family has some influence. I can get access to the information you need. But this deal is with myself and the twins, not with the maidens. I won't be informing the others. The elixir will only work for so many people. Which means you can't reveal where you acquired your information. Ever."

It was a bit of a risk for her. She was as good as telling me no one knew she was here. But I had no real reason to harm her. I nodded, holding out a hand. "Sounds like a deal. Do you know all the obstacles? Or just some of them?"

"We have the first six." She said in annoyance. "Whatever Dumbledore put in the seventh seems to be immune to divination. With that damned cleaver in the third room we have no way of getting anyone in there either, so six will have to do."

It was better than we had now, not to mention it confirmed that the dog was part of the defenses. I'd worried he might not count. "Alright. We agree. You pass us the details and once we get the stone we give you…let's say ten years supply of the elixir, and we can revisit the issue when the time is up."

She grimaced, but nodded. The chances of me promising her a lifetime supply of the stuff were vanishingly small. That would be far too long term an obligation, especially since the elixir would make both our lifetimes absurdly long.

Reaching into her robes, she drew out a sheaf of papers, rolled into a cylinder and tied with a red ribbon, passing them over to me.

I slipped them into my own robes with a nod. "Nice working with you, I'll let you know how things go. If we get the stone I'm not sure you'd hear about it given its nominally secret nature. Though Dumbledore doesn't seem to have put too much effort into keeping it low key."

"That's been a concern of ours as well." She grimaced. "I'd suggest proceeding with caution. We don't know why he made it so easy to find, but put such formidable traps in place. Something isn't right there." She paused. "Not that I care what happens to you, but we're quite interested in that elixir."

I shot her a wink as I laughed and turned away. "Whatever you say Lily. I'll be in touch. And nice meeting you two by the way." I called to the silent twins. Tracey said her goodbyes to all three before rushing to catch up, not wanting to get lost in the dark with her normal human vision. Seras followed behind her, leading Daphne, with whom she was still bickering in hushed tones.

As meetings went, this one hadn't been so bad. Still, we had research to do. Once we puzzled out methods to overcome the traps, we'd just need to wait until we had a free moment before we struck, then the stone would be ours. I loved it when a plan came together.

January 29th, 2011 Third floor corridor, Hogwarts, Scotland, 8:00 PM BST

We spent the rest of the week in the library. Morning, noon, and night, whenever we weren't eating or sleeping or in class, we were hitting the books. While we'd been given a list of the obstacles we'd be facing, we didn't know nearly enough ABOUT those obstacles. Lily's download was more a checklist than an information packet, and we had a lot of blanks to fill in.

We knew what the White Cleaver was and how to beat it, and from there we still needed to figure out how to counter another three obstacles, not even counting the seventh we had no idea about.

It became apparent, looking at the obstacles, that they were matched to specific teachers at the school, or rather, their subjects.

After a week of study, we'd figured out counters to the ones we knew, which left us ready to take on the tasks themselves. We'd needed to wait a few days before we could actually try, since the school was much better patrolled on weekdays. Once we hit saturday, we'd all snuck out and made our way to the third floor corridor, which was where we found ourselves now.

"Why did we bring everyone again?" Complained Daphne, her eyes raking over the rest of our party. Theo, Tracey, Blaise, Suzie, Seras, and Hannah were all fanned out in front of the big ass dog, which was studiously ignoring us and pretending to sleep.

I sighed. "Because. Tracey is our charms expert, Suzie is the best at transfiguration, and Blaise is better than me at potions. And because Hannah wouldn't let Susan come without her and Theo wouldn't let Hannah come without him."

Left unsaid was the fact that these people were friends. Friends who were willing to face life threatening danger with us, which meant they were friends I could trust with a secret that half a dozen people already knew anyway.

I'd been planning to offer them reincarnation as pawns this summer anyway, so now was as good a time as any to let them in on things, and maybe show off a bit to sway their ultimate decision.

She huffed a bit, but nodded eventually. "Fine. I take it we're taking the quick way down past the tentacle plant?"

Seras's blush went unnoticed to everyone but me in the low light, but I manage to strangle my grin as I agreed. "Yup. One for each arm and one hanging from our backs. Theo, Blaise, you're with me, and Daphne can take my back. Hannah and Suzie are with Seras, with Tracey hanging because she's in the best shape."

Blaise just started at me in confusion. "Right…so you're going to what? Flap your arms and fly us down? We're going through a trapdoor right?"

Grinning wickedly, I let my wings unfurl behind me the low light of the Lumos charms a few of us had active undoubtedly making me appear cloaked in shadow like an ominous badass. Hannah, who was closest to me, squeaked and backed up, falling on her ass, while the others just stared. At least until Seras let her own wings unfurl.

"Did you suddenly learn wandless silent self-transfiguration?" Theo asked weakly? "Because being a bit ahead in some subjects is on thing, but this is ridiculous."

I chuckled. "A reasonable guess, but no. I'm not sure if you all noticed, but there are some oddities about me. Nothing obvious or that would draw too much attention, but subtle idiosyncrasies that-"

Rolling her eyes, Tracey started listing. "You're way too strong, you learn magic really quickly, you somehow convinced two of the cutest witches in our year to join your harem, you left and came back with yet another attractive witch who shows signs of similar weirdness, and you're frankly far too attractive to be natural. Did I miss anything?"

I gaped at her, and Suzie of all people dissolved into giggles. "Ryan, sweetie. You are many wonderful things. Subtle is not one of them. If wizards didn't automatically write every odd thing that happened off as 'magic' someone would have called you out about all of this months ago. You can't be surprised they noticed."

"I… that's not true!" I looked around for some kind of support. "I'm great at keeping secrets. I never do anything suspicious. Except the quidditch thing. And the table in our first charms period. And taking care of the Cerberus Spit thing for Theo and…shit. I was really obvious wasn't I?"

In my defense, none of those incidents were unexplainable on their own. Suzie was right, wizards liked to cry magic to explain any given issue. Each of those things could be written off as bursts of 'accidental magic' since I was recently a squib, or wandless magic since I was obviously powerful.

But taken together…they did present something of a pattern of oddness. I groaned. "Alright, so you all noticed. Why didn't you say anything?"

"We noticed SOMETHING." Said Blaise, throwing up his hands. "But we had no idea what. We've had a pool going. Tracey thinks you're a werewolf. Hannah guessed vampire, and I figured you were some kind of incubus. Which, given your bloody bat wings seems like a pretty obvious win for me."

Raising an eyebrow at Tracey, I asked. "Werewolf? I've been around you on full moons I'm sure."

She shrugged. "Not confirmably. Plus you and those two always ran off at night. Vampire seemed unlikely given Quirrels whole garlic thing."

Seras raised her hand. "Actually, I'm a vampire. Garlic doesn't do anything to me. Just smells bad." She paused. "Though I'm not a NORMAL vampire, so that might be why. Do vampires usually fear garlic?"

They all blinked at her, and Hannah cheered. "Yes! I call that close enough. Blaise and I split the pot." Her eyes tracked to me. "Unless you're secretly also a werewolf?"

"I'm a devil." I grunted churlishly. "Which is NOT an incubus. I like sex, but don't feed on it. We're not native to this dimension, so you wouldn't have heard of us, though we're SIMILAR to demons, which are apparently a thing here. Aren't you all supposed to be horrified? Monsters are among you. Wizards are pretty staunch human supremacists right?"

Tracey shrugged. "Hannah and I are half-bloods, so we missed most of the blood purity nonsense. Theo was a bit bothered by the idea at first, but he got over it, and Blaise's mother is a serial killer." At his glare she shrugged. "What? She is. Like…by definition."

"Whatever the reason, I appreciate it." I said with a snort. "I told you all this because I wanted to make you an offer, but you took the wind out of my sails so I'll just let Daphne and Susan do it while Seras and I handle the Cleaver. In any case, we can fly, hence the wings, so everyone to their places so we can head down there."

Storming off toward the trapped door, I cleared my throat, the big dog already scrambling as I walked up and kicked the door open. The others were complaining, but I ignored them as Daphne wrapped her arms around my neck and I grabbed Blaise and Theo before floating off the ground.

Despite the wings, devils didn't have centralized flight, so I didn't need to worry about balance as I lowered us all into the trapped door. I touched down outside the area of the plant, as did Seras, and the others relit their wands, glancing around in amazement more aimed at their method of descent than the admittedly impressive chamber.

"Bloody hell." Said Tracey appreciatively. "Flying without a broom is wicked. Plus I bet that comes in handy during a quick shag."

Seras grinned toothily. "You have no idea. Unfortunately that was the easy part. You'll all want to move back while we take care of this one." Her face smoothed into a cold mask of readiness, and I nodded, walking with her toward the door. She pulled it open carefully, making sure not to actually cross the threshold and we looked in at the implacable figure in white within.

Suzie grabbed me as I drew my wand. "Be careful." She said earnestly, leaning up to give me a soft kiss.

There was a sharp poke in my back as I turned to find my Slytherin princess glaring at me. "If you get yourself killed, I won't speak to you for a month." Yanking my down for her own searing kiss, she spun and stalked away, not bothering to acknowledge the ridiculousness of that statement.

I winked at them all before turning to face the door, my wand basically vibrating in my hand. I'd had plenty of practice over the week prior, fun times with Seras as well as normal training with Val. I'd also been pouring more magic into the thing. The permanent cut I'd taken was a one time thing, but I could still grow the power by feeding it, and grow it I had.

Pushing against the darkness inside, I nodded to Seras before raising my wand and SHOVING my intent into the focus.

An explosion of liquid shadow blasted from the end of the wand, liquid having been a better medium for this task then fog. I'd expanded my capacity quite a bit, and when the darkness hit the cleaver, it flowed over the white clothes and the metal helmet like ink dyeing a seagull.

I felt some resistance from the armor it was wearing, an attempt to fight back against my magic, but I smashed my intent into it like a club. The resistance was trying to exert dominance of my darkness, and it didn't have the juice.

As I focused, I saw a blur from the corner of my eye, and Seras flashed forward almost too fast to track. The Cleaver surged toward her, scythe coming down, but his movements were jerky and hampered. Pushing harder, I shoved the shadows into him, breaching the skin as they delved deeper into the construct, slamming up against and mixing with another darkness within.

Seras reached the Cleaver as the battle inside it began, and used the hesitation to bash the scythe from its hand. The weapon went flying, but the inner struggle with the magic of the necromancer who created it drew my focus from restraint, and the Cleaver became mobile one again.

Without its weapon, it was down but not out, as shadow drenched hands blurred at Seras, who snarled and tanked the hits. She threw her own punches, taking ten blows for every one she gave, but her fists smashed bone and punched holes in flesh, tearing apart the monster so quickly she was almost keeping up with its horrible regeneration.

Serpine, who Val said had animated this thing, was a MUCH stronger necromancer than I was. His magic was denser and darker and it snaked and coiled against mine. I couldn't stop it, couldn't overtake it, not with so little necromantic power in my corner. I'd just started this discipline a week ago, and it wasn't enough.

Snarling internally, I slammed my intent through my magic, shoving it against his in the most terrible surge of willpower I could manage as I roared at Seras. "NOW!" For a split second, everything froze. My magic slammed into Serpines, my demonic intent managing to overwhelm his superior power for a split second.

That second was all Seras needed. Taking advantage of the frozen cleaver, she planted her hands on the stone, coming up into handstand and wrapping both legs around the metal helmet, the armor crunching inward as she clamped down and TWISTED, tearing the monster's head clean off its body.

I let the magic go as she rolled to her feet, letting the head drop and kicking it straight past me off into the center of the plant thing. The necromancy tried to repair the damage, but with no brain, the body couldn't move. I slumped to the ground, panting. Three down, four to go.

January 29th, 2011 Third floor corridor, Hogwarts, Scotland, 8:30 PM BST

I'd done a lot of shit since becoming a devil, including several fights and plenty of more general mayhem, but nothing wore me out quite like Necromancy. Intent, as discussed, was a much lesser part of wizard magic than demonic energy was. Wizard magic, as I'd noted before, was seventy thirty magic and intent, while demonic magic was seventy thirty intent and magic.

Necromancy, however, used previously gathered power, and was ALL intent, and apparently I had a finite amount of that available. Using it over and over drained some of my will, at least temporarily, and mentally exhausted me. Using as much as I had in that fight had me about to pass out.

"Ryan!" Said Suzie as she rushed in, throwing her arms around me, the others letting her through finally after confirming that the body wasn't going to get up and attack (Seras ripping off the limbs and tossing them to the corners of the sizable chamber probably helped clarify things). "Are you ok? What's wrong? Did it hit you?" She whirled to shoot a panicked look behind her. "Daphne! It did something to him he's not saying anything and his face is turning blue?"

Seras leaned down to pry her off of my neck, letting me finally suck in a frantic breath. "That happens when people suffocate, luv. Even devils need to breathe."

My redhead's face turned a complementary color to her copper locks. "Oh. Sorry. I was worried." Her big blue eyes shimmered as she shot me an apologetic look. "Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it!"

I laughed as I sat up. "It's fine Suzie. No harm done. My body is pretty sturdy. Devils can take a lot of choking before it does anything too harmful. Trust me, Seras and I tested that extensively the other day." Now it was my Rook's turn to blush, and I laughed as I floated up to my feet. "Everyone ok? Ready to move on?" My intent usage had tired me mentally, but physically I was fine. I wouldn't be casting for a bit though.

"That was wicked." Said Tracey with wide eyes as she approached. "Seras was going so fast. If we become devils, can we do that too?"

I shrugged. "What I did? Probably. What she did? Most likely not. Not soon anyway. There are different pieces with different strengths. And Rooks are the best at punching hard. She's not even the fastest piece though. Knights are the speed freaks."

"Can I be one of those?" She said excitedly."I want to learn to do that kind of stuff."

Shaking my head, I gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry Trace, you'd be a pawn. You can do stuff like that in enemy territory though. Pawns have something called 'promotion' which lets them use the powers of any of the other pieces. You can be strong like Seras, fast like a knight, or have a ton of magic like a bishop."

Hearing she'd be a pawn had dampened her spirits, but as expected, promotion had distracted her easily enough.

"So, what do we have coming for the next obstacle?" I asked, despite knowing full well what we'd be facing. Talking about it would get everyone focused, and while I DID know what was coming, I didn't know the details on how to beat it. Tracey was going to be key for the next one, which was our charms teacher's obstacle unless I missed my guess.

While Tracey wasn't a charms master, obviously, she had several years head start from her dad's tutoring. That gave her a thorough grounding for research into how to get past the obstacles.

Of course, we'd had to pay off several charms majors to smuggle her the books she needed, since they definitely weren't in the first year sections, but we'd managed to get her what she needed, and left her to do the research on her own since having to explain theoretical bullshit to us wasn't going to make it any easier.

Strolling to the next chamber door, she reached down and jerked it open, letting us out into an expansive room. So expansive, in fact, that it shouldn't have fit in the castle. An expansion charm in Flitwicks challenge wasn't exactly a shock though.

I wasn't sure who set the Cleaver to guard, but if I had to guess it was supposed to be DADA. I wasn't sure how Quirrel would have gotten in touch with the Necromancers though. Dumbledore maybe, but Quirrel? It was hardly important, though. We had bigger things to focus on. Things like a massive chamber with two waterfalls on either end full of multicolored platforms.

"Alright." Said Tracey, clapping her hands with a manic grin. "It's my time to shine. Now, this chamber is pretty complicated. The listing from the Maidens just pointed me at an obscure text about something called a skystrider puzzle. Which is what this is."

Glancing out along the platforms, I frowned as I tried to spot any real differences. "What do they do?"

She rolled her eyes. "I was getting to that, if SOMEONE would quit interrupting me. Now. As you know, one of the biggest subcategories of charms work is enchanting. It's one of the reasons I'm planning to pursue the subject, because my dad didn't have time to even scratch the surface of enchantments, and they're fascinating."

Pointing to the nearest platform, she indicated a small series of symbols carved onto the stone. "These are enchanted to react to specific charms. If you use the charm in question, the platform moves bringing you closer to the next platform. When the two touch, they mutate to a new platform, requiring a more powerful charm."

"What happens if you cast something else?" I said slowly, not liking the serious look on her face"

She grimaced. "The enchantment will backlash. All the power used to enchant it, or by anyone who has attempted the puzzle, will be released in a concentrated burst that will probably kill you. The only reason I'm even remotely convinced we can get through this is that the enchantments are delicate and complex by necessity. It's possible to alter the platforms, but not last minute, so I was able to learn the spell sequence needed to get past it from the book."

I nodded excitedly. "Right, follow your instructions and let you do the casting. That should be easy enough to manage."

"It would be." She said sweetly. "Except for the gargoyles." She pointed to the walls of the chamber, which, at closer inspection, was filled to the brim with stone cubbies, hundreds of them, each one containing a big hulking stone figure with huge snarling mouths stuffed with jagged stone teeth, and massive oversized rock wings.

They were…big. And intimidating, and there were LOTS of them. "And those are…also enchanted? Do they explode too?"

"No." She said bluntly. "They just try to murder you. Each platform you progress, one of the rows of gargoyles comes to life and attacks. If you try to fly over the puzzle they ALL come to life and attack. It's supposed to test a wizard's ability to multi task and keep calm under pressure."

I swallowed hard. Even Seras and I wouldn't be able to counter that many attackers, especially not carrying everyone. We might be able to fend off a row though. "Can more than one person stand on the platforms at a time?" We could protect Tracey while she worked the charms necessary to push us forward, but only if we could go with her. Otherwise we might as well just make everyone else go back while we kited them all out to kill. If we could even manage.

"Yes, teamwork is allowed." She said with a grimace. "Though the more people we have, the more difficult the path I have to take. With so many of us I had to learn a much harder sequence."

I shot her an appreciative smile. "Thanks, Trace. Really. I don't know what we'd do without you here."

Flicking her hair over a shoulder smugly, she shot me a grin. "Suffer, probably. Anyway, let's get started. This puzzle isn't going to solve itself. Keep them off me while I charm the platforms or we'll all be screwed." Strutting forward confidently, she stepped out onto a stone dock sort of thing that led to the first floating platform.

On either side of the chamber, from where the waterfalls flowed, there was a brown stone edifice that connected to one of the floating platforms, the beginning and end. In between, across hundreds of feet, the platforms hung in a grid pattern, each separated by about ten feet. Moss grew along the light brown stone, like this whole thing was some kind of jungle temple, though the gargoyles were grey as slate.

Stepping onto the first platform, this one a bright red. Tracey nodded to us before closing her eyes and beginning to mutter the charms needed. These charms weren't anything as simple as levitation or stunning. I had no clue what she was doing, but as she enspelled the platform, it came umoored from the dock and began to slowly move through the air to the left.

As soon as we began to move, the first of the multiple rows of gargoyles began to move. Cracks rang out as the shook loose the stone around them, as if they all had a coating of rock under which living creatures waited. As the rock fell away, they looked the same though, except the glowing red eyes.

The gargoyles, easily twenty or thirty of the things per side, threw back their heads and roared, reaching out and sinking claws into stone as they climbed up the walls between cubbies, leaping off to fly toward us on wings that should NOT have functioned once they got high enough.

I groaned, but I knew I needed to intervened. If Seras flew up to fight it would set them all off. Suzie pulled a rock from her pocket, muttering a quick transfiguration and turning it into a huge wooden club

She passed it to my Rook, who grinned a fang filled grin and stepped to the edge with her new weapon. Daphne took up a position on one side, while Blaise, Hannah, and Theo all stationed themselves opposite her. She was our best combatant spell wise, and could out duel any two of them.

Without any hesitation, I stepped to the last side of the square platform, pulling out my wand and preparing to cast. I didn't have much intent left, but wizard spells were power heavy, and I had plenty of that.

As the gargoyles approached, I heard Daphne fire a blasting curse, and I flicked my wand, shoving a powerful stunning spell into the closest gargoyle.

The thing stopped midair, frozen in place, only for another gargoyle to smash into it, both of them exploding into a shower of rock pieces. Grinning, I redoubled my casting, wandlessly snapping off a rain of the intent light spell, freezing them midair to create obstacles for the others.

I wasn't sure stunning spells were supposed to be able to DO that, but my magic was still devil magic and it did what I told it to do.

We finally managed to destroy them all, and we were left panting with effort, but excited. That was, at least, until the platform we were on docked with the NEXT platform. The next one was blue, and the two both turned purple as they merged together, somehow not dislodging us.

As Tracey started casting again, there was a series of loud cracking sounds as TWO more rows of gargoyles began to break free of their bindings, starting their climb up the walls between the cubbies to get enough height to glide toward us. Groaning, I set my stance. The next round was going to be even worse, and we weren't close to done yet. We were taking a fucking break after this chamber. Maybe even a nap.

January 29th, 2011 Third floor corridor, Hogwarts, Scotland, 10:00 PM BST

I ran out of magic halfway through the room. Even my demonic energy had limits, and I was using a LOT of stunning spells. Once I was tapped, I switched to just punching the shit out of the ones that came close. I wasn't a particularly talented fighter, but I was a devil, and that meant I was a lot faster than slow ass gargoyles.

My side of the platform was flooded with the things, and Daphne was somehow managing to keep up her own assault (I suspected she was using more economical spells than I was). Suzie, Blaise, Theo, and Hannah were trading off main attacker duties two at a time with the other two acting as an alternate, so they were fine, and Seras had been doing what I was doing now since the beginning.

My fist lashed out, powdering a gargoyle skull, then snagging a pair of wings and tearing them off, sending two different gargoyles (one wing each) plummeting into the water below. The only good news was that they reinforced the ones who were vulnerable, so Seras and I were pulling most of them by virtue of efficiency.

"Tracey!" I bellowed as I headbutted a particularly vicious bastard who got in a bit close. "We need a fucking break!" Grabbing one of the nearest incoming Gargoyles, I hurled it into a crowd of them as hard as I cold, my feet slipping on fine dust that was mounting under the soles of my shoes as I destroyed the constructs. "Can we stop before the next platform?"

The dark haired girl was pouring sweat, teeth gritted as she hissed incantations in a nearly inaudible slur of broken syllables. I could barely understand her, but apparently it was good enough for government work because we kept moving. When she heard what I said, she collapsed to her knees, panting, and the platform finally stopped shifting forward.

Sadly, despite not moving anymore, all the currently active gargoyles were still trying to kill us, so it took another five minutes to clear them away so we could all slump to the platform in exhaustion.

"Who?" I panted weakly. "Who on god's green earth is capable of fighting off this many fucking gargoyles alone while also casting the necessary charms? The power you would need to do this is absurd."

Tracey shook her head as she wheezed out. "We're not very good. A charms master could cast these spells with a tenth the effort. I'm barely passable with most of them. Not to mention Daphne is the only one of us with formal combat training. Notice she isn't caked in sweat and about to pass out."

As I glanced at my girlfriend, she shrugged from where she had sat primly on the platform, robes gathered under her as a cushion. "You all use too much power. Not to mention physical energy. I have a fairly economical spell chain that works well against stone. I was wasting minimal energy. I was also using PROPER combat spells, and not just overpowering a stunning charm to act like a half arsed impediment jinx."

I shrugged. She wasn't wrong. Bullying that spell into working the way it had took way more energy than a normal cast. I'd had a ton of demonic power left so I hadn't worried about it, but I'd cast that fucking spell one or two hundred times. In that big or a ruckus even I'd missed a few times.

Tracey panted on the platform for a bit longer before climbing to her feet. "Alright. I think I'm good to start back up. What about the rest of you?"

Suzie smiled reassuringly at our charms expert. "We're all fine. Daphne is handling the most aside from Seras and Ryan." She glanced at my Rook. "How is that club holding up? It's made of petrified wood, so it's harder, but I'm surprised it hasn't broken yet."

"I'm not." She said with a fanged grin. "I've been reinforcing it with my demonic power. Most magic I'm still catching up on, but Rooks seem to be naturally adept at reinforcing heavy objects to swing around."

That didn't surprise me, given the ease with which I'd poured energy into Tanith's sword. I was pretty sure reinforcing an object was one of the simpler uses of demonic energy. When we all resumed our positions Tracey began casting again, resuming her efforts to charm the platform and moving us ever closer to the next one.

When we made contact, the two merged like the last one, changing to a burnished bronze as Tracey frantically altered her casting. There was a rumble as three more rows burst out, dozens more gargoyles coming at us. I groaned, taking up my position again, fists at the ready.

As the swarm of gargoyles approached, I started throwing punches again, smashing them as they came in, doing my best to get as many of them in the way of the others as possible. Of the dozens attacking, most of them were approaching Seras and I, and her giant ass bat was making short work of them.

I considered using my necromancy again, but I was tapped out on intent, and I didn't want to pass out on the platform and leave the others defenseless, so physical defense was my only option.

It took a few minutes to take out this wave, and we stopped before docking with the next platform again, giving everyone time to rest. We'd gone through five of them so far, and we only had two left counting the one we were approaching. After another rest, we docked again and Tracey started casting again.

Two more platforms and we finally made it to the other side, exhausted and sore as hell. I was drained in more ways than I knew were possible. I slumped down on the stone, panting alongside the others. I couldn't believe we'd gotten through that.

"Remind me to talk to my mom about dueling lessons." I said aloud. Again. I'd assumed that could be put off until we finished the year, but it was looking more and more like I should've squeezed in some lessons. I was also no closer to picking my major, though I was leaning towards charms after this. Enchanting was badass.

Looking at Blaise, Seras let her club drop. She'd been propping it up on the floor but now that it was confirmed there was no enemies nearby she just let it go. "There's no fighting in the next chamber right? Because if there is I want to take a nap first."

He shook his head. "Nope. This next part is all me." He pulled out a small case from under his cloak and held it up. With a nod, we followed him through the door, stepping into a brand new chamber which immediately lit with a whoosh of flame as the torches around us came to life from nowhere.

Inside this chamber was a line of basins. Every one was made of stone and glowing with a different substance. Some were opaque, some translucent, and among randomly spaced basins were pieces of metal that gleamed in the light as I walked up and peered in at them. I was able to make out a set of teeth on one of them, and it became clear that when put together they would make up a key.

Walking to a table at the center of the chamber, blaise set down his case and opened it, pushing back to the top to reveal a series of small metal shelves that unfolded up and out, extending far beyond where they should reach. By the time he finished there were a dozen of the metal shelves, and he had to extend a pair of stands to hold them up.

"Comprehensive potion kit." Blaise said proudly. "Every ingredient your average potioneer might need, and a few that only the greats would need."

I stepped up next to him, scanning the ingredients. There were dozens of them, all in little jars stacked neatly on the shelves with tiny nearly unreadable labels. "So, do you recognize the potions here? I don't know what half of them are."

He snickered. "They're poisons mostly." He said in amusement. "Or similar brews. My mother specializes in these kinds of concoctions, and they're most of what I learned as a child. Remember that next time you feel like lording your devil strength over me." He winked to let me know he was kidding, and I just rolled my eyes.

"Most poisons don't work on devils." I retorted in a bored voice. "Though I'm kind of glad I never tried to sleep with your mom. Half of these look like they would be extremely painful to touch."

He gestured at a noxious green basin. "Rotvein tincture." Then he pointed to a basin emanating a disturbing purple haze. "Soulburn concoction. Screaming solution, nightmare potion, and I'm not SURE what that orange on is, it's either a potion that turns your bones to glass or a draught that makes your skin paper. Those two are almost identical in composition until the final step."

I grimaced. "Does your mom kill people or experiment on them like a mad scientist. I thought you said she makes their deaths look like accidents."

"She does." He said with a shrug. "But that term has a much broader meaning to wizards."

"As horrifying as this all is." Said Daphne icily. "And believe me, it's absolutely abominable, how are we supposed to get through this? Are you telling me you have a cure for every one of these potions on hand?"

Blaise snorted. "A cure? Most of these don't HAVE a cure. No, that's not what the test is here. Potions are dangerous, some of them lose power if you dump them out or leave them sit, but some don't. In order to dispose of a potion properly, it is therefore necessary to learn neutrilization. The art of adding potion ingredients to cancel out others until you've returned a potion to a neutral state."

Mom hadn't gotten to that point in my education yet, and I blinked in surprise. "So it's like subtraction vs the addition of normal potion making? Keep cancelling ingredients until they're all disarmed?"

Picking up a jar, he walked over to the rotvein poison, squinting into the basin to try to see if there was a key shard. Unfortunately the opaque potions were the majority, and only one or two translucent ones had pieces of the key that I assumed opened the large sturdy looking door at the end of the chamber.

Opening the jar, Blaise dumped it into the potion, his wand slipping into the concoction and spiralling in a strange combination pattern, six turns clockwise and one counterclockwise as he muttered a few spells. There was a loud his and sparks erupted from the basin, though Blaise had already backed away.

When he returned to the potion it had gone from noxious green to sickly yellow. Sighing, he leaned over to peer deeper into the substance. "I…think there's a key piece in there. I'm glad, this one is one of the easier potions to deconconct. The screaming solution is going to be hell to neutralize. Pass me the boomslang skin?" He held out a hand, and I snagged the jar in question and passed it to him.

After that, I walked over to the wall and sat down, leaning back against the stone. This was going to take a while, and I needed to recharge. I was about to close my eyes when I noticed a trip of shapes surround me. Suzie and Daphne sat down on either side, cuddling up to me, as Seras took up position in front of us to stand guard. Smiling at my girls, I closed my eyes and settled in. There was time for a quick nap while we waited, and everything would be a bit easier when I woke.

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent and hope everyone enjoys.