Shout at the Devil

by MalcolmTent6730

Magic wasn't real. That's what Ryan Black was told for most of his life. It was a truth he believed until about a week after his eighteenth birthday, when he was contacted by his dead dad's estate about his own. Being born a squib he had no reason to be informed, except for a small gift his old man left him. Evil pieces in Harry Potter. AU Hogwarts University. Eventual OC-Multi,

23. Chapter 23

September 3rd, 2011, Hogwarts, Scotland, 8:00 PM BST

Most of my saturday was pretty relaxing, spent with my girls, lying around while Daphne quizzed me on random political nonsense. Politics was weird. What I ate, when I ate it, in what order, with what utensil, how long I chewed and which napkin I wiped my mouth with (apparently there was going to be more than one) all had an irrevocable impact on how I was perceived.

Finally, the lessons ended and it was time to go. Since I was a guy it took me five minutes to get dressed, and Daphne much longer, so I was waiting for her to finish getting ready in the common room, standing so my dress robes didn't wrinkle.

"Why on earth is this shit so complicated?" I asked Theo, Blaise, Val, and Tracey. "What's the point of caring this much what people think?"

To my surprise, it was Stori, who was sitting on the couch reading, who answered. "You're one of the few people I know who asks things like that. Nobody can do everything, that's why we have majors. Wizards are raised to believe that there's strength in numbers. The world around us teaches us that."

"She's right." Said Tracey. "There are plenty of beasts too strong for a lone wizard to fight. We subdue them with numbers. It takes ten wizards to subdue an adolescent dragon, and a hundred to subdue a full grown Nundu."

I blinked. "What the actual fuck is a Nundu?" I'd never paid too much attention to magical creatures except to note when one matched what I'd heard in stories or if they came up in potion shit like the Re'em.

"Giant leopard." Said Tracey flatly. "Size of a bus, super sneaky, nearly impossible to hurt and with poison breath. They're native to parts of africa, and are widely considered to be the most dangerous magical creature on the planet. Nundu can and do wipe out whole settlements of people. One day they're there and the next they're gone."

Wincing, I shot her an appalled look. "How the hell have I not heard about that? Seems like something that would get attention."

Theo shook his head. "Nah, Nundu are rare. They breed incredibly infrequently and hibernate for long periods of time. I doubt there are more than ten or twenty Nundu in the world, and most of them are asleep at any given time. They're also incredibly stealthy, as Tracey mentioned. They only really attack wizard settlements when provoked. Mostly they hunt animals."

"What is this, national geographics?" I asked in shock. "Neither of you care about research, how do you know all this."

Theo rolled his eyes. "Every wizarding child knows what a Nundu is Ryan. They're the biggest scariest monster in the world. Obviously we all dream about having one as a pet. Or like…turning into one when becoming an animagus."

"Magical animagi are a myth." Said Stori bluntly. "People only ever turn into mundane animals."

That surprised me. "Wait…really? I just kind of figured it was anything. I'd heard of animagi here and there, so there are no people that turn into dragons."

"No." Said Stori. "I spent a lot of time reading when I was younger, and that's one of those subjects every kid likes to read about. People like to claim Merlin was a dragon animagus, or that Dumbledore turns into a phoenix, but no one has ever confirmed it. You can't turn into a Nundu, and considering how animagi work, if someone could, I wouldn't want to meet them."

An intriguing position. "Why? How do they work? I just know that it lets you turn into an animal."

She nodded. "An animal that you don't get to choose. It picks the one most like you in personality. Nundu are giant apex predators who regularly engage in wholesale slaughter and breathe toxic gas and disease. I'm not sure how terrible your personality has to be for that to be your perfect form, but I doubt anyone pleasant would receive a transformation like that."

"Wow." I said, hiding a smile. "You're a little nerd, aren't you." At her offended look I finally broke and started laughing. "Oh come on, it's not an insult. The world needs nerds, otherwise who would cool people like me pick on?"

Scowling, she raised her wand and shot a quick spell at me. Based on color it seemed like a simple stinging hex, but it didn't matter. Between my reflexes and my training with Dumbledore, I didn't even think about it before flicking my fingers and cutting the spell in half with a severing charm imbued with counter curse intent.

Intent like that was tricky, because it basically pitted my will against the caster. It was too general to maximize my power and was pretty close to brute force, but still sometimes you just needed a hammer.

The spell split in two, dissolving into red mist midair, and leaving Stori staring at me in stunned awe. "That…was…AMAZING!" She squealed, book forgotten as she tossed it aside. "You didn't use a wand or even say anything, what spell was that?" Her eyes were locked on mine and she was practically bouncing on the couch.

"Cutting curse." I shrugged. "Kind of. It's a little complicated. I'll teach you how to do it next year. It's tough for normal wizards to apply to begin with, and even harder to master. I can only really do it with the one spell." Well, two, but my trick with Aqua Eructo was both more limited and more destructive because of the limited physical nature of water.

I was planning to teach that spell to my peerage actually, but I was guessing only Val and Skulduggery would be able to learn it. Aqua Eructo was dangerous in that, as a counterpart to Fiendfyre (the spell crouch used on me before he died) it had a will of its own. Paired with demonic power it created a wild and especially dangerous spell.

The first time I'd tried it I almost died, and probably would have if Dumbledore hadn't been with me. Val and Skulduggery had their elemental sorcery to rein in the spell beast, but the others would need to work up to it. I wasn't anywhere near the teacher Dumbledore was.

My train of thought was derailed as everyone looked up, and I turned…and froze. Daphne was finished getting ready, and she looked…amazing. A tight green velvet dress clung to her lithe body, off the shoulder straps leaving her arms bare for white gloves up to her elbows. A platinum necklace set with emeralds, and a pair of emerald earrings.

"Wow." I said unintelligibly. "You look great." I just stood and gaped at her as her green painted lips, the color of sour apples, quirked up, a single eyebrow raise showing me how much she enjoyed showing off for me. Her platinum blonde hair was up in a complicated topknot woven with platinum chains strung with emerald beads, and the whole thing somehow enhanced her blue eyes rather than clashing.

Her eyes wandered over me, sparking with pleased smugness as she took me in. "You don't look so bad yourself." She said, stepping up to fix the bow tier on my dress robes. "Quite dashing in fact. Are you ready to go? It starts about now, but we want to be fashionably late."

"Yeah I got everything." I said with a shrug. "Don't have any mystical artifacts I can spare, so it looks like we're putting up cash. A favor seemed a bit risky."

She nodded. "Smart. But the value of the favors and objects on display are going to require quite a bit of cash down. You'll need to take a sizable chunk out of your pocket money." I'd refilled my bag at gringotts with the usual thousand galleons over the summer, and while I could get more at any time, I'd started trying to ration my spending.

Blowing all of Lucius's gold was fun, but now that Sirius was out of prison I wasn't the sole force in charge of the Black finances anymore. Since I had to support not just several family members but a whole peerage, I was doing my best to be more responsible with money, hence I had most all of my thousand galleons still on hand. "I can handle putting up maybe half of it. I'm not planning to lose anyway. But how does that even work? Favors and stuff and gold all in the same pot?"

"The Goblin Game uses special chips." She said, finishing her adjustments and waving goodbye to everyone else as she led me to the portrait. This must have been important because she didn't even stop talking to bid Stori farewell. "Each chip has a value, and at the end or when you cash out, you can spend those chips like currency, for galleons or favors or what have you."

I nodded in interest as I climbed through the portrait. "Well, ok." I said slowly. "But what stops people from just cashing out early and cleaning out the best stuff."

"Some do." She said with a shrug. "But that approach is limited. I've heard people who take too much end up getting into accidents. The game is about building alliances and forming a rapport, and if you alienate everyone in the school there's no one to have your back. You have to balance what you want with the impression you make."

I shrugged. "I guess that makes sense." I still thought it was a lot of trouble over what people thought.

"I know you tend to underestimate soft power." She said with a laugh. "But even you can only do so much. A thousand killing curses when you're surrounded would kill you just as dead as a muggle. Even Voldemort knows that soft power can be a powerful tool, that's why he had the Death Eaters. Forming your peerage is a good first step, but you need more."

Grimacing, I nodded again. "Yeah, I got that. I was even planning to address it over the summer, but with the remnants and my lessons with Dumbledore… This will be a great opportunity to expand my horizons."

Smiling warmly, she stood up on her toes in her emerald green heels and pecked me on the cheek. "I know you're doing this partly for me." She said softly. "So I can feel like I'm helping. But I WILL help, I promise. I might not be one of the stronger pieces, but I'm still your girl, and I'll show you I can be just as integral as Suzie and Seras."

I pulled her to a stop. "Whoa." I said solemnly. "Is that what this is about? Because I promise, our relationship isn't measured by how useful you are."

"I know." She said fondly. "But I WANT to be of use. The others all are, they all have their own niche. Or most of them anyway. I want to find the way I can make us all stronger, and I think this could be it. Just trust me?"

"Always." I said, looking her dead in the eye. "Without you we wouldn't have gotten the stone, and that elixir has saved my life more than once, or at least prevented it from sucking really hard for a long time. Just lead the way, and I'll follow." I knew Daphne wasn't exactly feeling stable with her position in my life, and this would be a good way to help her see how much I trusted her already.

Beaming, she clutched my hand and dragged me off down the hallways. We walked for what seemed like an hour, before finally coming to a portrait in the dungeons I'd never seen before, a picture of dogs playing poker.

I hadn't know wizards had these, but it was obvious from the puffing of the cigars from the canines in question this was wizarding portrait. Daphne stopped in front of it and took a deep breath, before saying. "Big Rumpus." The portrait swung open, revealing a huge room crawling with people. Giving me an encouraging smile, Daphne pulled me inside. Time to enter the brutal world of politics.

September 3rd, 2011, Hogwarts, Scotland, 9:00 PM BST

For anyone else it might have been a bit overwhelming to see so many affluent people together in one room, but watching them all, that was hardly the first thing to pop into my head. When I stepped inside, all I could think was how PETTY it all seemed.

It was one of the few times I was able to recognize when my Pride sin was pushing on me. The devil inside wanted me to sneer at these people. Petty children playing at being powers, useless weaklings I could crush. It took a serious flex of will to push myself out of that headspace, despite coming here with the exact opposite intention.

Allies, political strength, soft power, these were all useful and beneficial things. Just because I could kick the shit out of someone didn't make them pointless.

Daphne pulled on my arm, and when I looked down at her, she gave me a concerned smile. "You feeling alright?" She said, her voice more concerned than I was used to hearing it. "I know this can all be a lot."

"It's not that." I said with a chuckle. "Head is a little wonky. I'm past it." That was our in public code for telling each other that there was mental devil shit going on. We all had to kind of look out for each other about that kind of thing. Each of us had our own sins that pushed our buttons. For me it was Lust most of all, Wrath popped up now and then when I was annoyed. Pride was uncommon, but one of the more insidious, and I was glad I'd been able to recognize it.

She nodded in understanding. "Well, how about I fill you in on what you need to know. I've been gathering information on the societies since we approached Moon last year." She sounded excited, glad to be able to contribute, and I nodded eagerly so she'd know I was interested in the information she'd clearly worked hard to get.

"Sounds good. I know a few already." I ticked off the three I'd heard of. "I know the two Slytherin Societies, Skull and Dagger and the Maiden Sisterhood. And the Gryffindor society, The Red Barons. There's two more in Ravenclaw, right?"

"Exactly." She said, beaming. "The two Ravenclaw Societies are called Unkindness and Nevermore. Well, nominally. While the leadership of Nevermore is always Ravenclaw, it's actually inter-house. They're one of the most mysterious societies, and members often don't even know each other. They interact in masks and through proxies."

I raised an eyebrow. "That's kind of awesome. Interesting name for them, I'm surprised they'd reference a muggle poet. What about Unkindness?"

"The main Ravenclaw society." She said with a shrug. "Same as Skull and Dagger. Legacies mostly, though admittedly smarter than most of Skull and Dagger by all accounts. Unkindness tend to be the highest graded upper year students, people with promise and talent in certain subjects."

I spotted a familiar face, or rather, three, Lily Moon was sitting with Flora and Hestia Carrow, boredly looking around the room from a table in the back corner. Since Daphne seemed down with het into, I headed over to the table, slipping into an empty chair.

"Go away." Said Lily in a bland voice without looking up. "I'm not impressed by your money, your father, or your charm. Yes I know I have large breasts, no I don't care that you like them, and no I don't want to show them to you, no matter how nice a dinner you take me to."

I snickered at her speech. "I'm sure my girlfriend will be glad to hear it." Daphne cleared her throat loudly and Lily's head whipped around, cheeks turning pink.

"Ryan." She stammered. "That wasn't…Merlin I'm sorry. You're the fifth man to sit there tonight and they were all trying to get in my knickers. I didn't mean to…" She buried her face in her hands. "Kill me now."

Daphne, who had just taken another of the empty seats at the round table, smiled at her surprisingly gently. "He's heard worse." She said more charitably than expected. "It's nice to see you, Moon. Ryan told me the two of you have become good friends. I hope the same can be said for us." She held out a hand for the other girl to shake.

"I'm not against that." The goth girl said suspiciously. "Though I have to admit my surprise. I've never gotten any impression from you but disdain."

Daphne shrugged. "It's been brought to my attention that I may have judged certain members of our year…harshly. For superficial reasons." I saw her eyes flick down to Lily's expansive cleavage, but they moved away quickly. Lily herself didn't seem to notice though, taking the proffered hand.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it." She said diplomatically. "You're an impressive young woman. We considered extending you an invitation to the Maidens, but we usually wait until second year to induct non legacies."

I nodded. "Ah so that's why you're in charge even though you've only just finished first year?"

Lily burst out laughing, looking horrified as she tried to regain her composure, covering her mouth. "Sorry. You just surprised me. Ryan, I'm NOT in charge. No seventh year would take orders from a freshman. Carey Ductu is the current matriarch. She, Samantha Selwyn, and Clara Martyris make up the Silver Triumvirate, three of the most influential students in the school."

"Interesting." I said slowly. "What about the other societies. Who runs them? They must be pretty impressive."

She shrugged. "Barnaby Lee runs the Skull and Dagger, and Patricia Rakepick heads The Red Barons. Victor Ketseuki is in charge of Unkindness, and for obvious reasons no one knows who is in charge of Nevermore."

"Yeah, how does that work?" I questioned. "Like…I get they wear masks, but someone has to know who they are? Daphne said their leadership is Ravenclaw, how would people know if they're all a mystery." I was intrigued by the last society, a mysterious inter house group of elites sounded interesting as hell.

Opening her mouth, she started to speak, and then paused. "I…don't actually know. Nobody who isn't in Nevermore knows anything about Nevermore. The only thing people know is that the leader comes from Ravenclaw but…I don't actually know where that came from."

To my surprise, one of the carrow twins, Flora, I think, chuckled. "That's a popular theory, though not one Lily would know since it's not in any books."

"Hey, none of that." Lily snapped testily. "I refuse to be described like I'm some sort of…Granger." Daphne snorted at that, and the Goth girl shot her a grin. It was nice to see them bonding even if it was over mutual dislike of Granger.

Honestly, she wasn't THAT bad. She was nice to look at, and she seemed to mean well, but we'd all pretty much universally started avoiding her like the plague early on for one simple reason. Hermione Granger was a narc.

That might sound innocuous or pointless to worry about, but it wasn't. Spending time around a person who prioritized outdated rules above almost anything else was asking to get screwed over. Aside from being a know it all, which was easily overlooked, Granger was the type to turn people in for doing innocuous shit that didn't hurt anybody because they were 'breaking the rules'.

She was also a hypocrite, because based on her presence in the library last year, she was willing to break those same rules if she thought the end goal was worthwhile.

As nice as she could be, it was hard not to have some disdain for a person like that, and more than anything, my impression of her as untrustworthy was part of the reason I didn't mind poking fun at her expense. Our first meeting had been fine, but over time I'd seen her obnoxious tendencies and just chosen to avoid her.

That said, I felt a LITTLE bad taking pot shots at her when she wasn't around, but apparently Lily and Daphne did NOT, because the next ten minutes was basically a slam session entirely revolving around Hermione Granger, and by the end of it I was straight up wincing. Despite that, Daphne seemed to have made a friend, which was nice, especially if Lily ended up joining the peerage later.

Before we could move onto a new topic though, a hush fell over the room. There was a burst of magic as a large table manifested in the center, a familiar green felt table with padded edges, clearly meant for playing cards.

"Damn, I guess it's time." Lily said worriedly. "You'll want to go get your chips if you haven't already."

Nodding, I stood and headed in the direction she gestured. Dropping five hundred galleons with a small wince (even though I'd expected it) I received my chips, along with a brief explanation of exactly what they were worth.

Reds were one, Greens were ten, Yellows were fifty, and Blues were a hundred. Apparently they based the values on house ranking the year before, in reverse order. As I sat down, Daphne standing beside me, I realized something else…I was limping in VERY short stacked.

The piles of chips in front of everyone else were huge, mine was barely a pile at all. Twenty reds, seven greens, four yellows and two blues was all I'd been able to get for my absurd sum of five hundred gold. It really brought to bare how absurdly rich these people were. Granted, I could have probably dropped a hundred times this amount without hurting my account, I just didn't feel like it.

As nice as that was though, it also kind of fucked me. Limping in put you at a huge disadvantage playing cards, because people could force you to go all in without much risk, which made for a slow and very grindy game.

That was fine though, I didn't mind. I was an old hand at poker, and had been playing since I was a kid. My friends used to run a game in high school, albeit not for nearly this amount of money. It still made me plenty confident I could separate these sheltered nobles from their cash post haste.

Looking at the table, I snorted as a though popped into my head. Daphne shot me a questioning glance and I grinned at her. "Sorry. Just thought of an old joke. There's a city in the US called Vegas where poker is popular. It's a common saying that anyone can go to Vegas and walk away with a small fortune-"

"As long as they start with a large one." Finished a cheerful voice. I turned to see a smiling girl with short brown hair and dark eyes. At my raised eyebrow, she just giggled. "Sorry, don't hear too many muggle sayings here. I'm a half-blood so I've heard more of those." She held out a hand. "Clara Martyris." She said sunnily. "Nice to meet you."

I nodded. "Ryan Black." I said as I shook it. "Likewise. Do you know when this whole thing is going to start?" I wanted to know how much time I had to study everyone else. Devil senses could give me an edge if I could establish a baseline. Or maybe I was fooling myself, but it didn't hurt to try.

She pointed past me to where a pretty older girl, about twenty five, with long blonde hair in a ponytail, stood next to a tall girl with red hair and a sallow guy with dark hair. "Looks like its about time."

Cursing internally, I turned to watch the three as a fourth guy joined them. "Now that everyone is here." Said the blonde. "I think we should go over the rules as usual, to make sure the newcomers know what to do. After that…" She grinned wolfishly. "Let the games begin."

AN:/ Thanks to TheTrueSpartan for lending me the use of his amazing OC's Carey, Clara, and Samantha. I definitely recommend checking out his story Fate on here, from which the three originated.

September 3rd, 2011, Hogwarts, Scotland, 10:00 PM BST

The rules were pretty standard, and getting through them didn't take much time. Once everything was settled, we all received our cards. There were fifteen people at the table, from the four society leaders to their associates like Clara and Lily, to extras sitting in like Fred, George, and I.

When I got my cards, I accepted them with a smile, briefly freezing when I realized the cards were moving, before remembering wizards did that with all their art. I scanned my hand (ace ten off suit) and then looked over the table to see how everyone else was reacting.

Sadly for me, they were using multiple decks. I'd hoped they were shitty enough at cards just to use the one. I couldn't count cards for real, but I knew the basic math card counters used, and it was easy to keep track of with a single deck.

Clara, sitting off to the side, grinned at me. "Wow, I get a pretty good hand how about you?" I smiled at her blandly and she pouted. "Oh come on. I just want to know good or bad. Hey, I know, I'll give you my panties if you tell me." Giggling ditzily, she stopped and smacked her palm into her head. "Wait, silly me, I don't wear any."

"I wouldn't buy into that if I were you." Said Lily conversationally from my other side. "She likes to play the bimbo, but Clara is sneaky and vicious. If you treat her like an airhead you'll end hurting for it."

Clara pouted again, this time at Lily. "Boo. You're no fun. You spend too much time with Sammy. You don't need to be so serious all the time. Let your hair down, live a little, whip out that big fat knockers and let em' bounce!" She punctuated this by bouncing in place herself, drawing attention to her own sizable amount of cleavage.

Across the table, Carey Ductu sighed. "Please stop trying to corrupt Samantha's protege Clara. I'll never hear the end of it if you succeed. Lily is free to follow her own path."

Shrugging expansively Clara leaned back, arching her back and thrusting out her chest as she bent nearly double over the back of her chair to snag a flute of champagne from a passing tray. "Oh fine. I don't suppose either of you will tell me what kind of cards you got? Since you ruined my little game with the sophomore."

"I wasn't going to bite anyway." I said with a laugh. "I already three girls, and that's too many as it is."

Clara giggled. "I wasn't asking for a proposal. You could have brought them along." She winked at Daphne. "Especially this one. She's a little biscuit." She snapped her teeth at my girlfriend seductively.
That actually did work me up a bit, but I pushed it aside. Clara was dangerous, but I had practice controlling my lust. I had a feeling the other two members of the Triumvirate wouldn't be so easy to handle. I smiled at Carey. "By the way, I'm Ryan Black, I don't think we've been introduced."

Carey, who had just put up the big blind, smiled at me. "Oh we know who you are. You have a decent sized group of baby Slytherins and a few promising seedlings from the other houses. It's an impressive accomplishment."

As opposed to Clara, Carey's voice held no promise and she wasn't trying to be seductive. Carey's expression was open and positive, and her tone was warm and reassuring. It was like someone had taken a roller and painted her head to toe in 'big sister'. I could see the keen mind under the coating though, and knew she was definitely one of the most dangerous people here.

Daphne stepped in, smiling demurely, hands on my shoulders. "Yes, we're very proud of our Ryan. He's got so much power and charisma, he just draws people in. I'm assuming you aren't going to offer him membership?"

Carey laughed warmly as she checked her bet. I'd done the same, and I was just hoping nobody raised before the flop. While my cards weren't bad, they also weren't good. Betting into an off suit ace and ten without seeing the flop would be stupid. Theoretically, from a numbers standpoint, it would be stupid to bet into it at all unless I hit something like trips, but I had a fondness for this particular hand and it usually went my way.

"I'm afraid we can't invite Mr. Black to our ranks." Carey said apologetically. "But I'm sure Lily told you that we were interested in extending an offer to you. I see a lot of myself in you, Daphne, and I think you could do great things with our help."

The flop came, and thankfully none of the others at the table had raised. Ace, five, six. The ace was enough to get me a pair. Not to mention the six was hearts, as was the five, and my own ten. I had a possible flush with a pair. When it came time for Clara to call, she raised to a hundred, and I winced before calling.

Daphne, watching my cards, the table, and the rest of the players (many of whom were having their own private conversations at other parts of the large table) finally responded to Carey. "I'm not…against the idea." She said slowly. "It's even tempting. But there has to be a catch. What do you want from me in return?"

She beamed. "Smart girl. Your friend, Val. She's strong, independent, and powerful. Samantha finds her fascinating. Sam is around somewhere, but she doesn't really play games. She wants the girl to join and to personally tutor her."

That was something I'd heard could happen. If a higher year student in your Major wanted to, they could offer you a mentorship. It was a way for talented students to pass where their class was. It usually didn't happen until at least third year, once a person had a chance to demonstrate aptitude in their major, but I wasn't shocked someone had their eye on Val. As my Queen she was a powerhouse beyond even my level, and she had a natural gift for combat magic besides.

Daphne was unfazed. "Interesting, but now I feel the deal is uneven on our end. Valkyrie and I are talented witches. Getting us into your society will pay dividends in the long term. You should be paying us."

Betting got to me and I glanced down at the turn. Four of hearts. I swallowed. All that was left was the river, but if I hit a heart or an ace I was pretty much guaranteed to take the hand. If it was a seven of hearts I'd even get a straight. I thought about it for a second and then pushed in all my chips.

Daphne turned to stare at me like I was crazy, but I just shot her a smile. This was mathematically not a sound bet, but it was one I made often. I'd been in this situation a dozen times, and while I might not win the hand every time, I won more than I lost. I needed a big win here to stick around, if I limped in short stacked eventually they would grind me down and I'd be out.

I looked around, and saw nine other people call my bet. No one raised. Five of them folded, which was fine. Clara whistled. "The stones on this one. All in on your first hand. No wonder you snagged a tasty little biscuit like her."

She was one of the ones that stayed in. "What can I say." I grinned confidently. "I'm a risk taker." Now it was more than just those closest paying attention, everyone at the table was looking. It was a huge table, with easily ten feet between each of us, but everyone wanted to see how my bet would work out.

The dealer, a tall dark skinned guy with an easy smile shuffled the deck just for posterity. "Bets are in." He boomed. "Here comes the river." His hand flicked, and I watched with bated breath as the last card hit….an ace of hearts.

I grinned as I flipped mine over, showing them to the dealer. "Heart flush with trip aces." There were a series of curses. I wasn't the only one with a heart flush, but I was the only one with the ace on top of it. The dealer pushed all the chips out of the pot over to me and I grinned. Five grand was a MUCH more stable pool of chips to play from.

"Why would you POSSIBLY bet into that?" Said Carey dumbly. "The chances of hitting that card were absurdly low. Maybe the flush, but without it you'd have only had a pair."

I shrugged. "What can I say, I was feeling lucky." I winked at Daphne, who grinned and mashed her lips to mine aggressively. Apparently it got her hot when I won at cards. Good to know. The kiss went on a bit longer than expected and I might have got a bit handsy because Carey cleared her throat.

Clara was just staring, biting her lip hungrily. Apparently the seductive airhead act wasn't ALL bullshit. Daphne shot her a wink as she cleared her mouth and then mine, wiping off the lipstick. The dealer dealt our hands again, and we were back at it. I didn't get much this time and folded, turning my attention to the conversation.

"What do you want?" Carey was asking Daphne. "It can't be money. I'm already offering instruction. I won't insult you by pretending you aren't of value, but not enough value to warrant anything truly absurd." Daphne's hand was sliding down my shoulder, along my arm, and I could tell this whole thing was getting her excited as hell.

The two of them started haggling, and I turned to talk to Lily, deciding that Clara would probably just get me all worked up. We started chatting, though I noticed her staring at my lips a bit and getting distracted. More hands came, and I played it a bit safer, finally deciding to call it at ten thousand. I didn't need to be the grand winner.

Daphne and I cashed out, picking up a pair of favors, a thousand gold, and magic lockbox. We couldn't afford any of the crazy expensive stuff, but the favors were mostly why we were here. I admit to being in a bit of a rush, Daphne had been glued to my side all night, and her eyes were smoldering.

When we finally got out of there she dragged me down the hall we were in and shoved me into a broom closet, slamming the door as she basically climbed me like a ladder, flinging herself on me as she started working at the knot of my bow tie.

Her legs wrapped around me as she slammed me into the wall, kissing her way down my neck. "You were amazing." She purred as she ground against me. "Spectacular. You had those sluts drooling." She said that last part breathlessly, like it was the best part. I had a feeling she was particularly happy to have gotten a certain busty goth to notice me. Daphne might not hate Lily anymore but apparently she was still pretty damned competitive.

Reaching down, I slid a hand under her dress and ripped her green silk panties right off her with a laugh. "Politics gets you horny. Good to know. You sure you want to do this here?" We weren't too far from the entrance to the poker room. The stone would keep the sound from getting in there, but anyone could walk by."

She mashed her lips against mind. "I want them to hear. Make me scream." And then she was back on me. Let it never be said that I'm one to disappoint a lady.

September 3rd, 2011, Hogwarts, Scotland, 11:00 PM BST (smut warning)

Sitting in that closet with one of the most gorgeous women I'd ever seen dressed up and grinding her bare cunt on me was probably one of the hottest things I'd ever experienced. Reaching down, I grabbed a handful of sweet bouncy ass. Smacking it I drew a whine from my girlfriend.

"This is getting bigger." I murmured in her ear. "Devils bodies change to fit their desire. You want a big fat ass princess?"

She growled in frustration. "Yesss." She hissed. "I want it to bounce and wobble so you stare at it like Granger's. Stuck up bitch gets far too much of your attention. You don't even like her but I always catch you staring."

"Awww." I cooed teasingly. "Is my girl all jealous of the know it all? You know if you fatten it up I'm gonna fuck it right? If you had an ass like that I'd never take my hands off it. You think your pretty little asshole can take it? I know how much you like to complain about how big my cock is. You ready to take it in all three holes on the regular."

Holding her easily with one hand, I undid my pants, letting my cock spring out to slap down just above her tight little pussy. She was whining, wriggling around trying to get me inside her, but I held her still. Finally, pouting, she nodded. "I'll take it for you."

I smirked. "Well you seem unsure. Maybe I should ask Granger after all. She seems so desperate to learn more magic. Maybe I should make her a devil so I can get my hands on that ass." Daphne mashed her lips against mine roughly, biting the bottom one when she pulled away.

"Mine!" She hissed. "This dick is mine. I'll let you fuck Suzie and that fat breasted vampire tart, but I draw the line at the bookworm."

Pressing the head of my cock against her, I shoved my dick balls deep into her soaking pussy. She threw her head back with a groan. "What was that princess? Someone sounded like she was having trouble taking her favorite cock."

"You're splitting me in two." She mewled, a big stupid grin on her face. "Nothing makes me feel like this. Every inch of me is full." She giggled almost drunkenly. "That bookworm slut couldn't take all this. Nobody can take it like me. Tell me how my pussy feels. I love to hear you say it out loud." She wriggled on me, squeezing in a way she knew I loved.

I let my head fall back with a groan. "Fuck. It's perfect. Nothing grips me like this. Like it never wants to let me go." I started to slide out slowly, enjoying her clinging cunt, before shoving back inside her, repeating it as I built up a nice tempo. "You were thinking about this all night weren't you? Teasing me with all that tight green silk. I almost took a few guys heads off for staring."
"You think I didn't want to murder those sluts who couldn't keep their eyes off you." She hissed, gripping my hair and staring into my eyes manically as I fucked her. "That desperate little whore Moon bouncing her fat tits in your face. I played nice, but I wanted to whip your cock out and ride it right in front of them. Show those whores whats mine."

Reaching up, I ripped the top of her dress, letting one of her perky tits spill out. Grabbing her nipple, I twisted it lightly. "How about these. You know how many guys I caught staring. And they're just getting bigger. I never should have made you a devil. You're already gorgeous, you'll have the body of a porn star in a few months. The staring will drive me crazy."

"Then show them I'm yours." She purred. "Fuck this pussy good. Make me squeal. Make sure someone hears me and tells everyone about what you do to me."

Slamming her against the wall, I started fucking into her harder. I was pretty sure my fingertips were going to bruise her, but neither of us cared as I slammed away. This wasn't anything as civilized as making love. Daphne wanted to fuck, and I was going give her what she needed.

Her pussy felt like magic silk, gripping and sliding and writhing and I had to stuff my cock in faster because the moments I wasn't in her were fucking agonizing. I buried my face in her neck as I rutted into her, nipping at the skin in a way I knew she liked. Daphne wanted marks on her to show off. She loved when people could see what I did to her.

Sadly the one tit I'd pulled out was still out and the bouncing was irresistible. I leaned down and locked my lips around her strawberry milk nipple, sucking and nipping, enjoying the feel of her pussy tightening when my teeth sunk in.

It was like fucking heroin. Daphne was frustrating, sarcastic, and a little bratty, but nobody fucked like her. Suzie liked it more tender (or sometimes she liked to play helpless and let me take charge) and Seras preferred to just zone out and let me ruin her, Daphne was the only one who matched me fuck for fuck. She wanted to WIN.

"Deeper!" She hissed. "Get it deeper. Do it!" I groaned, grabbing her perfectly styled hair and yanking her head back as I pulled out, dropped her on unsteady feet, then spun her around and pushed her face roughly into the wall.

I took a moment, despite my cock feeling cold and needing to get back inside her, to enjoy the sight of my put together girlfriend bent over, cheek to the stone, makeup smeared, one tit hanging out, and her green silk dress pulled up to expose smooth white ass and battered dripping pussy.

My hand came down almost of its own accord on a cheek, seeing the pale flesh cave in and spring back out, enjoying the jiggle and the red tinge as her cunt twitched needily. "What was that?" I asked teasingly, barely able to hold back.

"In me!" She whined. "I feel so empty baby. I need it. Fill me up. I need you to stretch it. Stuff it full."

Grabbing her hips, I pressed my cock to her clenching entrance and then stuffed it back in, getting a keening wail of approval. "Full like that?" I growled. "Is that what you needed?"

"Yes!" She giggled drunkenly. "Fuck I felt you hit the back. You know I love it when you run out of room. Pound it in baby. Take that pussy." I'd tapped her cervix, which she'd become almost addicted to since we started fucking.

Daphne, contrary to what her speeches about my dick might imply, was a size queen. She LOVED taking my dick, feeling me bottom out, enjoying the sensation of being split in half, especially since becoming a devil. Seras, slutty little deviant that she was, had shown Daphne some hentai involving womb penetration, and I'd had to actively convince her she couldn't take my cock punching through into her womb in real life.

Still, she fucking loved to imagine me trying, and as I got back to work on her cunt, I made sure the head of my dick battered the back of her pussy like a siege engine, loving her squeals of depraved enjoyment as we fucked.

On top of that, the view of her pale cheeks bouncing off my hips was intoxicating, and seeing the almost drunken drooling mask of enthusiasm of her face as it mashed partway into the stone made my balls tighten. I pressed it down, speeding up my fuck as she crowed her enthusiasm for the deep dicking she was taking.

"You wish they were watching still?" I growled as I slapped that candy ass again. "Seeing you drool on the stone like a five galleon whore?"

She giggled. "Yesss!" She hissed gleefully. "Show them what getting on this dick means. Scare them all off. Those cunts don't deserve this dick. They couldn't take it like me." Wriggling her hips she squealed "FUCK I needed this. You're always so busy, I don't get this enough. Fuck me more baby! Use your Slytherin slut!"

I groaned at the sensation, becoming a devil had levelled up Daphne's pussy in a way I didn't even know was possible. Seras was fun, and Suzie was amazing, but something about the rough wriggling way Daphne shoved herself down my dick blew my mind.

"You really want them to see?" I grinned. "How about I blow my load in you. They can see my cum dripping down your thighs as we stumble out of here. I can try to put a baby in my needy little bitch."

I obviously wasn't actually doing that. Devils had ridiculously low conception rates, I could creampie Daphne for breakfast lunch and dinner every day for a decade and she wouldn't get pregnant, but she liked the dirty talk. Especially when I mixed it with a bit of public humiliation for good measure.

Daphne was all about reputation and standing, which made the thought of being outed as a depraved cum guzzling whore (not that I honestly considered her one) just about the hottest thing she could imagine. The idea of me knocking her up and having everyone see her pregnant at eighteen out of wedlock drove her crazy.

"You can't!" She whined eagerly. We had an established safeword, so I knew she wanted me to keep going. "Imagine the looks. I'd be the laughingstock of wizard society. Please pull out!"

Despite her words, her cunt clamped down like a vise and she started shoving her ass back at me harder, desperately trying to milk my balls. I grinned, my hands clamping down harder on her hips as I fucked into her deeper. "Fuck I'm running out of room." I grunted. "I'm gonna blow right up against the back of this pussy. I can almost feel your womb coming down to meet me. I'm gonna fill it."

She sped up even further, her hips and ass a blur. "Do it!' She squealed, all games over. "Fill me with your cum! Get me pregnant!"

I felt my balls tighten further, almost painfully so, and I knew I couldn't hold off for long. "Fuck I'm close." I grunted. "You're gonna get it. I'm gonna cum."

"Get it baby!" She screamed. "Get that pussy, take it all!" I laughed as I enjoyed the sound of her babbling. Seras had obviously showed her more than just hentai. My pretty pureblood princess was squealing like a porn star, and it was hot as fuck.

Finally, I couldn't do anything else. I was at the end of my rope, and I slammed back into her deep as I could go as my balls clenched up and I blew my load as deep inside her as I could get. She screamed joyfully as she felt the first spurt splatter across the inside of her cunt, coming undone herself as she exploded, squirting all over the floor of the closer.

The sigh of her long legs planted, ass red and exposed as she stood, bent over, and exploded all over my cock, was enough to drive me crazy, and by the time I finished, slumping forward onto her back as I caught my breath, I almost couldn't see from how turned on I was.

Looking around, I chuckled. "Well, seems like we might need a few repairing charms and a scourgify or two to put this place back in order."

Daphne shoved me away, letting my back bang into the opposite wall of the closet before she turned and dropped to her knees. "We can do that later." She said as she took my cock on her mouth, before pulling off of it with a wet pop. "For now you need to get ready to go again. Because I'm nowhere near done." I really loved devil stamina.

October 31st, 2011, Hogwarts, Scotland, 11:00 AM BST

"Happy Samhain." Chirped professor Flitwick from the front of the room. "I see you're all as excited for the feast tonight as I am. However, it is not feast time yet, and as such, attention must be paid." Everyone was a little twitchy, but his reminder calmed us down a bit. We'd seen a few accidents during our time in this class.

I raised a hand. "Excuse me, professor?" He raised a brow at me. "Since we're all a bit antsy, maybe you could get our attention by letting us try an anchored charm. We've been working on the persistent type for two months now."

Chuckling, Flitwick shook his head. Not in denial, but in amusement, as I found out a moment later. "Very well, Mr. Black. This class has been making excellent progress."

Walking to one side of the room, he reached into a bag, pulling out a box that he carried to the table. Flipping it open, he turned it, showing us rows of stones of varying colors and shapes. Gesturing to the box, he pointed to Tracey. "Miss Davis, as one of my most promising legacies, perhaps you might pick the object we'll use for this demonstration."

Tracey looked at the box hesitantly. "I…I don't know what the difference is, sir."

"Perfectly fine." He assured her. "That's why I'm here. Just trust your instincts. I won't allow any accidents, I'm just curious how your natural inclinations match up with the ideal situation in this particular case."

She shrugged, then pointed to an orange and brown stone. "I guess that one?"

"Tiger's eye." He said with a smile. "An excellent choice." Picking up the stone, he showed it to the class. "However, the correct response to that question would be to discern what KIND of charm was to be anchored. Tiger's eye is an excellent material for combat spells. Certain kinds of reactive wards are best anchored into Tiger's eye."

Turning to the board behind him, he drew out a series of squares in chalk and started writing in them. "Anchored charms are when we first come into contact with magical material analysis. As mentioned, all objects have nodes and substructures, but more important to our current endeavor are two factors. Miss Davis, would you happen to know what those might be?"

"Magical tolerance and magical saturation." Tracey said in relief, happy to have gotten this part right. "A magical material's two most important qualities are the amount of magic it can hold and the amount of magic inherently part of it."

He nodded. "Exactly so. Saturation is of more use during proper enchanting, but it affects tolerance. The more magic is natively contained within a substance the more power it can hold in most cases. Anchors are not enchantments, as they aren't cast on a node, but on a whole object. Because of this the magical tolerance of an object is of paramount importance when creating a spell anchor. What happens if you try to anchor a charm that's too large to an object without the tolerance to withstand it."

"It blows up?" I guessed. I didn't really know, but that would have been my guess.

He pointed at me triumphantly. "Indeed." He said with a grin. "Though not always immediately. Overloaded objects come in stages. The weakest type of overload simply puts undue strain on the item. They degrade more quickly, eventually breaking down and causing the explosion mentioned earlier. Traditionally, the longer an explosion takes, the weaker it will be, because the degradation will drain energy from the charm in question."

Placing the Tiger's eye on the table, he waved his wand at it casually. "Interpello." He said lazily. There was a slight blue glow from the stone, and then a loud boom as the thing fucking ATOMIZED, showing us all with dust.

"That." He said affably. "Was an Anti-Apparition Charm. Not to be confused with an Anti-DIS-apparition Jinx. The former prevents people from Apparating to a location, the latter from apparating away. It is a purely defensive spell, and that piece of Tiger's eye was neither suited to that spell nor did it have the tolerance to hold it. Hence, an explosion."

Tracey raised a hand, Flitwick calling on her. "So…if we're going to cast an Anti-Apparition charm, what material would be most suited?"

"An excellent question." Enthused the professor. "In this particular case, the most suitable material would be Red Jasper. It is defensively aligned and promotes balance and protection." He picked up a bright red rock from the box. "Since that's the case, should I perform the charm again on this stone?"

Tracey shook her head. "Suitability is only part of it. You need to find out if that stone has enough tolerance." She sounded uncertain, but Flitwick gave her a beaming smile.

"Well done." Running his wand over the stone he intoned. "Facultas." The stone started to glow, this time white, and the illumination seemed weak. "This spell is a capacity testing charm. It isn't foolproof, and loses its usefulness at higher level, but for a quick test of the tolerance of an object." Grabbing a piece of parchment, he dropped it over the rock. "If the item in question doesn't have enough capacity to show through the parchment, it is 'mana faint' and shouldn't be used for an anchor."

It was obvious that stone wasn't nearly enough. Reaching under his desk, he pulled out a much bigger piece of red jasper, repeating his charm, and the light from this one was so bright, even through the parchment, that I had to squint.

Again he cast the Anti-Apparition charm. This time, the glow that suffused the rock sunk in, absorbed into the material.

"That." He said when he was done. "Is the creation of an anchor. However, can anyone tell me what was missing from that demonstration." He pointed at me. "Mr. Black. I trust you've noticed something off."

I nodded. "The spells were made to remain in place. Specifically meant for anchoring. Most of the charms we've learned are made persistent by Intent. Fixing them to the anchor would probably require something else?" I wasn't sure about this, because it hadn't really worked that way for me, but while everyone else had been learning Intent, theirs was much weaker than mine and I didn't see it being enough to hold through a counterspell.

"Exactly!" He crowed. "I knew you would notice that. Indeed, barring certain specially designed spells, most charms require an extra step during anchor creation." Pulling a white rock out of the box, he set it on the table. "Miss Davis. If you would attempt to make this rock levitate. Focus your intent on creating a permanent floating object."

Shrugging, Tracey waved her wand at the rock. "Wingardium Leviosa." The rock floated up off the table, only for Flitwick to cast a counterspell and cause it to drop. It actually hung for just a second longer than expected, but eventually dropped.

"Well done Miss. Davis." Flitwick said enthusiastically. "To resist a counterspell from an experienced charms master for even a moment is quite a feat. Your intent is unusually firm for one so young. Now, as Mr. Black mentioned, there is another step. Your intent is to allow the rock to remain aloft, but you've cast your spell ON the rock not INTO the rock."

Waving his wand above the stone, he muttered. "Parare." Then he gestured for Tracey to try again. She cast, the rock floated, and Flitwick cast his counterspell. The rock remained in the air, hovering in front of him.

"That." Said Flitwick proudly. "Was perfectly executed. Take ten points for Slytherin Miss. Davis. Now, the spell I used before her levitation charm is called a 'priming incantation'. Priming is the step Mr. Black mentioned. It prepares the item in question to soak in a charm, even if it isn't designed for that purpose. Can anyone tell me the prerequisite for the subsequent spells to take root? They should be clear as crystal by now. Mr. Finnegan?"

Seamus, the irish guy who didn't seem to like me much, nodded. "You need to be able to cast a persistent charm?" He said hesitantly.

"Exactly." Said Flitwick. "Priming isn't some perfect assimilation. It simply readies the object to more properly assimilate a persistent charm cast with proper intent. Priming will also be necessary for your enchanting later, and is how we bind persistent charms into nodes. Remember, however, that intent is still important. Strong intent can infuse the charm more thoroughly, sometimes even without priming in the first place."

Tracey looked at me. "Professor, what about Ryan's table incident last year. Why didn't the table explode? It wasn't primed and Ryan didn't check the tolerance."

"Excellent question." Flitwick acknowledged. "The simple answer is luck. As you may have noticed, the stone I picked for this spell was very small. Levitation is a particularly gentle charm, and a table is a large object. Despite not being made of a very magic conductive wood, the table was large and able to offset the difference through quantity. This is how people often create rudimentary home wards without experience."

We spent the next fifteen minutes learning the priming incantation. It was fascinating to feel the items we were using turn into essentially magic sponges. Once I got it down, I tried the same spell as Tracey, and the stone Flitwick had passed all of us floated up and stuck in the air like some kind of fixed point in space.

Flitwick cleared his throat once everyone finished. "It is important to note." Said the diminutive wizard. "That as I mentioned, intent is still important. Priming the object makes it take better, but anchors are NOT perfect. A large amount of powerful countercurses, or multiple castings over a prolonged period WILL eventually overpower an anchor. The length of time or number of required casters varies based on the strength of your intent."

Waving at a rock, he cast a counterspell. "Finite Incantatem." When nothing happened, he cast it again. It took ten casts for Seamus's rock to drop out of the air. He switched to Tracey's, and then cast it twenty five times before the rock finally fell. As a devil Tracey had a pretty strong intent.

Pointing at my anchor, Flitwick addressed the class. "This stone." He said seriously. "Will be moved to the front of the class." He waved his wand, murmured a few charms, and my floating rock slid smoothly to the front of the class. "We will se how long Mr. Black's anchor will last after being properly primed."

He grinned at me, and I returned the expression. He'd been unable to counter my intent on the table last year (though I suspected he could have just applied counterspells until it worked and had been too lazy) properly primed, the rock should float for AGES. He invited everyone to try to counter it, and they did, and nothing worked.

The rock was going to remain there with people casting one counterspell each per class to see how long it would survive.

Everyone else's rocks came down after varying numbers of counterspells, and finally the class was over. Flitwick dismissed us, and I grinned at Tracey as we left. "This is going to be pretty damned useful going forward." I said enthusiastically. "I can't wait to get to actual enchanting. I want to try to make my room bigger. Maybe an anchor would be enough."

She perked up. "Oh, that's actually a great idea. I bet that wouldn't be hard at all. Solid idea. I'd love to have a great hall sized bedroom. Maybe I could put in a hot tub."

Pausing as we walked, I waved Tracey off as she stopped. "Sorry, just saw someone I need to talk to." I nodded to Potter, who was walking past from his own class. " I promised my uncle I'd ask Potter about not returning his letters. I haven't had a chance yet, but I figure today's as good a day as any."

In reality, I'd been waiting. Sirius really wanted to talk to the guy, and I figured the day his parents died would be a time when he'd be more open to learning more about his family. It wasn't NICE, but I was a devil, sue me. Waving goodbye to Tracey I headed to catch up to Harry Potter. This was going to be an awkward conversation.

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent hope everyone enjoyed. some of the power elements were partly inspired by harry potter and the boy who live by TheSanti, one of my favorite stories. Highly recommended if you havent read it.