Disclaimer – I do not own this series or the characters – Jim Butcher is the rightful owner. I do not make any money with this story. TV Verse
Burnt out
When people say that a house has character, they don't usually mean it quite so... literally.
A/N: this may seem to meander a bit towards the middle/beginning of the end. There is a specific end point though, so bear with it. Also Harry gets whumped twice.
8.
Sheryl moved in a month after Harry decked her ex husband, to the delight of the Ravens, who appreciated the trees around the mansion immensely. Scott was no less delighted, exploring the house avidly. He'd taken to talking to it as if it was a person, and Harry, who'd already been doing something similar, noticed that the place seemed a lot more light and comfortable. At Bob's direction he'd replanted the kitchen and indoor garden, which Bob insisted on calling a solar. The gardening staff had been intrigued, and offered tips and suggestions for the odd collection, which certainly helped. A small staff still came once a month to clean the place thoroughly, and all in all the house seemed alive once more.
To Scott's delight and Bob's outright glee, the grand houses on either side of Harry's mansion had been renovated into multiplex homes. Bob declined to explain why the idea made him so giddy, and Harry surmised there was some sort of old money family historic rival going on there. Bob would save the story for just the right moment, and Harry was happy to let him. There were children on either side that Scott could play with, and three months after she had moved her son in Sheryl confessed that unless Harry really wanted the house to himself she'd prefer to stay. Harry had welcomed her wholeheartedly, and when she and Scott were away from the house for the day he'd taken over the wards as their master. This time there was nothing but glee in the air as he and Bob had moved into the centre of the ward points, and a profound sense of satisfaction as they left.
Harry had also been very busy professionally. Bob had convinced him that they didn't need an office in downtown, and he'd been right. They'd had a lot more phone referrals, and it was easy enough to meet people in town at their own place of business or a neutral park or library. Harry had decided to wear parts of the suits he'd retrieved from the attic, mostly the waistcoats and trousers, wearing t shirts or henleys underneath. He'd replaced his winter coat from an op shop, and felt that he had a handle on life once more.
Bob accompanied him everywhere. It wasn't that he didn't trust the house wards, or that he thought Sheryl or Scott would steal or harm him, it was just that neither of them were ready to be apart for too long, even four months after the fire. The Ghost certainly seemed to relish the attention, his scolding lessening for what Harry thought of as minor infractions of Bob's rules regarding the care and feeding of a wizard. Sometimes he felt like an unruly pet that Bob was trying to train, but they were certainly less argumentative of late.
They had both noticed that the cases they were taking on were things that the High Council should have been policing. It was evident that the people coming to Harry were avoiding the council as Morgan had suggested, and as Harry still couldn't turn people away, the message that he would step in before the Council did spread pretty rapidly in the wider community.
This was good for his bank balance, not that he need to worry about it after the accountant found no less than three formerly hidden bank accounts with healthy balances, and Bob was fully supportive of anything that got him out and about more, so Harry viewed it as a positive thing. Which is why he was initially confused that warm summer Saturday, when the door opened on an eleven year old girl, her bike propped haphazardly on the portico pillar. There were three older children behind her, two still straddling their bikes, and one who evidently had caught a lift on the back of his friends bike. Given there were fewer children around it made a sort of sense to Harry that Scott's friends would be from a mixed age group, so although the kids seemed tense he dismissed it as shyness of a stranger.
"Hang on, let me call Scott," Harry smiled, turning into the house. Scott was having his homework checked over by Bob, and would be ready for a break. A small hand grabbed at his wrist, tugging urgently.
"Are you Wizard Dresden?" she asked when he turned back to look at her. She dropped his wrist and gulped, as if shocked at her own daring.
"Ye-es," Harry said slowly, "Can I help you?"
"M-my brother is in big trouble," she gulped again, and Harry realised she was on the edge of tears, "We need a grown up wizard."
"Alright," Harry stepped back, and watched as she stepped shakily over the threshold. Her friends abandoned their bikes and hurried after her. No one had needed a proper invitation and the wards hadn't so much as tightened, though they did tell Harry he was looking at four very young magical practitioners. Harry let the door shut itself and led them up the hall to his workroom. Bob was talking to Scott, working on the boy's homework from his Latin primer. Sheryl had agreed that Bob could start teaching Scott the languages he'd need for learning magic, and Bob had been delighted that the boy had the same facility with language that the Ghost did. Harry was the stronger arithmetician of the two of them, surpassing even Bob's own skills at an early age.
"Come and sit down," Harry led the way to the couch in front of the fireplace, waving the coffee table back and sitting on it as the kids crowded onto the leather seat. The boy who'd been standing apart squashed himself away from contact with his friends, something that raised the hair on the back of Harry's neck. He made a note to find a way to check on the boy and propped his elbows on his knees to seem less threatening.
"Ok, lets start with names. Who am I talking to?" Harry asked quietly.
"I'm Hannah," the girl who'd knocked said quietly, fiddling with the hem of her butterfly embossed t-shirt, "And that is Saskia, Al and Pete."
A brunette with her hair in long twin plaits the same age as Hannah, and a dark skinned thirteen year old in a baseball strip and short buzzed hair. Pete was the youngest, too thin and pale for Harry's liking, moving stiffly.
"What can I do for Hannah's big brother?" Harry nodded to each of them as she named them, "And I assume members of your family as well?"
"We're all magic," Hannah waved at the kids on the couch with her, "And our families are too. And Mark, my brother, he and some friends got some old books from a market somewhere. And it was ok at first, the spells were just cool. But now Evan, he's the big kid, he wants to try something bigger, and… and…"
She was crying and Harry got up and fetched a handkerchief from his bedroom, handing it over to her and crouching down in front of her with a hand on his arm.
"You want me to talk to them?" he asked, "So they won't do it?"
"Evan is real mean," Pete said, staring at the rug in front of the couch, "He hurts people when he doesn't get what he wants. I don't know if you can talk to him."
"He your big brother?" Harry asked, and when Pete nodded without looking up, Harry thought he knew who had been hurting the kid, "You had those bruises looked at?"
Pete's head jerked up and he paled even further. Harry left Saskia to comfort Hannah and went to the shelves to get the balm he used for bruises. Bob had sent Scott out of the room when he realised this was a consultation, and he came with Harry back to the couch.
"This is Bob," Harry said to Pete, "He's a ghost, and he has a way to check that you're not hurt too badly, but it feels a bit weird. Can he check on you?"
Pete nodded stiffly and Bob bent over him murmuring soft reassurances as he put his hand into Pete's torso. He moved his hand slowly, frowning as he did, and then removed his hand and straightened up.
"Some very nasty bruising, but nothing is broken young sir," Bob told the child gently, though Harry caught the undertone of anger in Bob's voice, "My wizard here has a balm that will help heal you and ease your discomfort. Will you apply it?"
"Ok," Pete whispered and Harry showed him the bathroom. Bob went to stand in the door to the corridor so Pete would know where to come back to, every line of his shoulders tight with frustration that he couldn't help. Harry leaned on his desk, forcing himself to look unconcerned while they waited. Pete paused at the door, then had a whispered conversation with Bob, who summoned Harry with a gesture.
"He can't reach his back," Bob murmured and went to talk to the children on the couch. Harry knelt down and took the balm, waiting until Pete turned away and pulled his shirt up. There were belt marks on his back, angry and inflamed, but Harry didn't say anything, just applied the balm with long gentle strokes. Pete sighed as the last mark was soothed, and turned back when Harry said he was done.
"It's not just your brother is it?" he didn't get up from where he was kneeling, and Pete gave a tiny shake of his head. Harry breathed out and then nodded.
"Then I guess I need to make up a bedroom for you here. I'm not letting you go back," Harry said quietly, knowing the impulse was probably impractical but not really caring right now, "Because only a monster would send you home to that."
"They'll come for you," Pete whispered, painful longing on his face and Harry shrugged, "Its only because I'm not good enough at learning magic."
"Let them come," he replied, "They won't try though, because I can fight back. And as for learning magic… well if you don't want to, you don't have to. We'll sort it out later."
Pete nodded, looking unconvinced as he went to join his friends on the couch. Bob was listening to Saskia haltingly explain the diagram she had seen, drawing in the air and erasing and changing as she explained. Hannah added her own suggestions, and between the two of them, the girls finally agreed that the symbol floating in the air was correct.
"They're getting ingredients too," Al spoke up, "Some herbs and things, and Julia, my sister, said one of the boys has scored some weed."
"Weed?" Bob frowned. He wasn't always up on the modern slang, and the phrase 'the devils lettuce' that Al supplied didn't clarify things for him.
"Cannabis," Harry clarified when Bob turned an indignant expression on him, suspecting he was being mocked, "Dried and processed to be smoked as an intoxicant."
"Harry, if they are intoxicated and attempt any ritual with a circle composed like this, we are in very deep trouble indeed," Bob looked alarmed, "We need to locate them, without delay."
"Do you know where they plan to try this out?" Harry asked quietly, standing beside Bob and deciphering the symbol. It was a summoning symbol, one that would need multiple people working together. Tonight was a full moon, which was the wrong time to be using this particular symbol, not to mention early summer, which was the wrong time of year to use a winter spell. If they were high when they tried it, catastrophe was the only outcome.
"In the woods not too far from here," Pete said softly, "Evan has a spot he likes to go, he says its his power place."
"Highly unlikely," Bob scoffed. Harry frowned at him. Neither drew attention to the minute flinch Pete made in response to the Ghost's reaction, though Harry could see in the back of Bob's eyes that he regretted causing it.
"This house is built on a ley line," Harry reminded his mentor, "It runs through the woods, and into the city. If Evan has found a clearing where the ley line runs he might think of it as a powerful place."
"Yes," Bob frowned unhappily, "I suppose that is true. That is even more ill advised, with this spell, the moon phase, the season and their intoxication… Harry we need to get to them."
"Can you show me where Evan likes to go?" Harry asked Pete, who shook his head glumly.
"I never went near it," he confessed, and Harry didn't blame him. If his family were violent he'd minimise contact as much as he could.
"Do either of you have some object or possession belonging to a sibling?" Harry asked instead, "I can use it for a tracking spell."
"I have Julie's hair tie," Al spoke up suddenly, getting up and digging in the pocket of his jeans, pulling out a hair tie with curly hair still attached to it, "I don't know how they always end up in my pockets, but here…"
"Perfect," Harry breathed and took the tie carefully, moving to the worktable by the window.
9.
He hadn't been able to persuade the kids to stay at the manor. The crystal had showed that the clearing was very close, and Harry had been able to scry over a map to pinpoint it. Although the kids had come to him, he'd left a note for Sheryl, and Scott had been called to take it unread to his mother. She would call the number Harry had for the wardens and give them the information in the note. Hopefully they'd arrive in time to help him persuade the teens that this was a really bad idea. And if Evan got physical, well it wouldn't hurt to have a corporeal person to witness that he didn't use force that wasn't warranted.
There was a gate that let out from the estate into the woods, and Harry let his longer legs carry him ahead of the kids, hoping that they would get there after he'd managed to persuade the teens to stop. The sun was setting, and Bob was muttering about auspices and ill omens as he hurried beside Harry. The ley line was singing to him as they strode through the underbrush, a familiar sound he could hear late at night when the house was still, and he stumbled when the song cut off.
"Harry?" Bob asked, concern on his face and in his voice.
"The ley line has fallen silent," Harry told the Ghost. He began to run, sure that this was a sign of the ritual being started. It was the wrong time for it, with the moon and sun balanced on either horizon exerting opposite pulls, nullifying each other in an uneasy tug of war that the moon would eventually win.
"You could hear it?" Bob disappeared and reappeared in front of Harry, doing it over and over as he ran.
"You couldn't?" Harry asked a little breathlessly, hefting his hockey stick into a better position.
"No Harry," Bob looked exasperated as Harry reached the clearing silently. There were eight teens in the middle, standing around a circle scraped into the woodland floor. Candles were placed at imprecise intervals, and the chanting was out of time. Harry focused his Sight on them, and saw that they were contributing an uneven flow of energy to the teen in the middle, a tall well muscled boy of eighteen, who was standing inside a circle of rebar that had been stuck point first into the ground, presumably for protection. If they had been rods of cold iron it might have worked, but rebar was steel, which contained iron and other metals.
There were crashing sounds behind him as the kids ran forward, tripping under the undergrowth that was becoming increasingly hard to see. The noise distracted a few of the casters, who stumbled in the chant, losing their place. It didn't matter though, as they'd opened enough of a doorway to attract something's attention and it was pushing through. Nothing good ever came of losing control of a ritual, and as Hannah and the others skidded to a stop, Harry unhooked Bob's satchel. He drew a quick circle of his own, dropping the satchel into the middle and calling the four kids into the middle of it. A quick scratch across his skin gained a bead of blood to seal it.
"Stay in the circle," he ordered them, "Hannah, pick Bob up. Bob, stay with them and protect them as best you can. If I fall, do everything you can to get them to safety, I command it."
"It shall be done," Bob said woodenly, the glare on his face promising that Harry was in for another lecture when this was all over. Hannah pulled the satchel strap over her head and clutched the cloth bag to her, her eyes wide with fear. Harry shook his wand out of his sleeve and into his hand and turned back to the middle of the clearing.
"Don't touch the runes," Bob said softly, herding the four children left in his care closer together as Harry's voice lashed out, stopping the chant from all the teens but the one in the middle, "It's alright, he's very good at magic when he wants to be."
"That's Evan in the middle," Pete shook with fear, wrapping his arms around himself, and Saskia and Hannah moved closer to him, Saskia taking his hand. Bob watched as Harry waved the teens away from their places around the circle. From the stumbling gait of several they had consumed the intoxicant, and Harry's next protection circle had to be bigger to enclose them all.
Evan had kept chanting, his anger and spite tainting his voice as he glared at the teens who were only now starting to realise that they were in real danger. There was a hot, sulfur laden wind rushing through the clearing, and Bob realised that the teen in the middle was no longer alone. A large dark mass hulked behind him, inside the circle of rods. Clouds, low and dark boiled across the sky, thunder rumbling ominously, centring themselves not above the demon, but Harry.
"He's going to summon the elements," Bob realised, horror in his voice, not aware he was speaking aloud, "Without a ritual circle!"
A ritual circle would allow the caster to summon and use the power of the natural elements to override and undo spells or a summoning that had gotten out of control. It protected the user from the full force of the elements and any backlash that may occur when they released the elements back to their natural flow.
"Why didn't he draw another circle?" Al demanded and Bob spared the child a glance, realising that if he didn't explain the children would panic and leave the circle.
"He didn't have time," Bob forced his voice to be calm, "He had to protect your siblings. Crouch down all, of you, it will be safer."
The children crouched down together, and he gave them a nod of approval, "Very good. If the circle breaks for any reason I want you to run back the way we came. I will be with you every step of the way. Do any of you know how to cast a small light?"
"I can," Saskia spoke up, "I'll do it."
"Good girl," Bob praised her, watching as Evan realised he was no longer alone. The boy twisted away and tried to leave his circle, and Bob realised what was going to happen, "Cover your eyes children!"
They did, just in time to avoid seeing Evan ripped in two by the demon and the two halves swallowed down. Harry's voice didn't falter in cadence or volume, though fury tinged it now, an emotion that Bob knew his wizard would channel into the spell that was being woven to seal the weak circle.
If they hadn't all been at risk of dying, Bob would have found the spell net beautiful. Harry may have lacked finesse in the smaller order spells, but in the large order there was a level of control and grace that Bob had never been able to claim when he was alive. A deep dark pocket of his psyche was jealous that Harry commanded such power so effortlessly where Bob had struggled in life, but Bob squashed that down ruthlessly.
The wind was spinning now, denuding the trees of their leaves as it formed a funnel around the demon, which roared its defiance. This was one of the animal demons, no higher thought or function other than to hunt and kill. If it got out they would have little chance of outrunning it, though maybe it could be out climbed. Bob glanced over at the teens, who were sobbing with fright or cowering on the ground. A dark girl with her hair blowing in her eyes was staring in horror at Al, who was staring back at her.
"If we have to run, follow us!" the boy shouted across the distance, and she nodded. She turned to her friends, who pulled the teens who'd collapsed up to their knees, slapping faces and shaking shoulders. They were closer to the power being utilised, and Bob could see the debris was battering them quite badly. It couldn't be helped though, Harry had not had time to make the circles impermeable.
Harry's voice rose over the sound of the tornado, staff and wand glowing as he gathered the final energy he'd need. The demon was battering against the wind, pinned by the force of it. Bob couldn't feel it, but from the way the children were huddling together, clutching each others arms it was quite fierce. Thunder rumbled in a building crescendo, and then the lightning that had been building overhead struck.
It roared through Bob's wizard, flowing from the arm he'd flung overhead to the arm stretched out with his staff pointing at the demon. The spell net caught the energy fast and closed with a resounding snap, even as the demon thrashed against the net dragging it back to the other side. Harry's voice rose in command, and despite its efforts to escape, the demon obeyed, roaring defiance as it sank back into the ground. The rebar that had been planted into the ground was sucked into the tornado that Harry was using to keep it in place until the spell was complete. Lightning racked him, pouring from the sky to his raised wand, consuming it as surely as it would consume Harry if he held the spell too long.
There was one last heave from the demon and the steel spikes that Evan had mistakenly used for protection spayed across the clearing, even as the net sealed it away once more and the lightning stopped. Rain came pouring down and Bob screamed in horrified denial as one of the spikes impaled Harry, doing what even the elements he'd channelled unprotected couldn't, knocking him from his feet.
"Bob! Bob!" Hannah's frightened voice brought him to his senses, kneeling as he was at the edge of Harry's protection, "Bob what do we do?"
"Stay there a moment," Bob told her and focused his energy on his Sight, ignoring the shape of the man he had adopted in his heart as a son. The rain wouldn't be able to wash the circle away, and it was already easing as the clouds above dispersed. Saskia made her light behind him, and in the circle full of teens one of the boys did as well.
"It's safe to emerge," Bob took a shaky breath, "Hannah, I beg of you, take me to Harry. Scuff the line there with your foot."
The circle fell and Hannah ran towards Harry. Her brother yelled in alarm and there was some dithering as the teens debated if it was safe to come out. The children didn't hesitate though, they ran towards the most frightening man they'd ever met, certain he'd never hurt them. Bob didn't spare the teens much thought as he manifested beside Harry, plunging a hand with unseemly haste into his abdomen where he'd been impaled.
"He's alive," Bob gasped in relief, "Thank the stars!"
"Can you make him better?" Pete asked from where he was crouched beside Harry's head, "Mr Bob?"
"I can't," Bob looked up as the teen who had been yelling grabbed hold of Hannah and hugged her hard. This must be Mark then, Bob decided, "I can't lift him, nor light our way to safety."
"We can," Mark said shakily, "He saved us. I can't believe he came to save us. Hannah, how come you're here?"
"I couldn't go to dad," Hannah shook her head, "You know what he's like. So I went to Wizard Dresden. Everyone says he's a bad man, but there's a kid at school who said that he helped find her brother when he went missing. He wouldn't have tried to find a kid if he was bad."
"That's Harry Dresden?" Julia gulped, "Al, you went to Harry Dresden?"
"You wouldn't listen to me," Al snapped, "Evan is stupid! He thinks that because he has magic people need to do what he tells them!"
"Where is Evan?" Pete asked quietly, and the teens all paused as they realised the four children hadn't seen what happened: that Pete hadn't watched his brother die.
"The demon killed him, Pete," Bob said gently, his mind still whirling through ways to get Harry to the house and help that wouldn't involve the risk of jostling him as he was carried by the surviving teens, "I am sorry, child. He was in the circle with it and Harry couldn't reach him."
Pete hiccuped and Saskia moved to put her arm around him. Harry groaned and shifted, his eyes opening slowly.
"Stay still dearest," Bob said firmly, "You're hurt."
"Well now I'm really in for a lecture," Harry mumbled, "Pete, I…"
Pete bent double, resting his head on Harry's shoulder and sobbing. Harry winced, but lifted a hand to touch the boys hair.
"I'm sorry kid," Harry sighed, "I couldn't …"
"S'not your fault," Pete sobbed, "He did it, not you."
"How are we getting everyone home?" Harry asked Bob, stroking Pete's hair, "Do you think you could teach someone to draw a really big translocation spell? You were working on it, right? And we're on the ley line, so that should help…"
"I can," Bob gasped, furious with himself that he hadn't thought of it already, "You brilliant boy. Of course I can. You, with the light…"
"Bjorn," the boy muttered and Bob glared at him. Now was not the time for sulking.
"Bjorn, come with me. And the one called Julia, too. The rest of you, get as close to Harry as you can but don't jostle him!" Bob leapt up and moved to to stand at Harry's feet. He drew in the air, instructing Julia to carve the symbol he was overlaying on the mud around them into the ground. He watched carefully, making her smooth the badly drawn ones out and start again more than once when she wasn't as accurate as he needed, Bjorn holding his light out to make it easier for them both to see. When Bob was sure that the spell was correct and everyone was inside it he came back to crouch at Harry's side. Pete had stopped sobbing, and had sat up, but was still clutching Harry's shoulder tightly.
"Everyone take a knee," Harry ordered, and Bob watched as the teens all knelt down. It was an odd way to instruct someone to kneel, but Bob supposed this was another example of the change in language over the centuries. Harry stretched out a shaking hand and dropped it onto the control rune, his blood and a pulse of energy from the ley line whisking them away from the clearing.
TBC