June 26th, 2011, Ryan's Manor, London, 1:00 PM BST

By the beginning of the next day, Amelia had cleared us to leave. Suzie's aunt had left after she got Suzie to bed and been out all night helping with the response. She'd filled us in on the bare bones, nothing 'classified' but she'd examined Malfoy Manor herself, as well as several other locations that had been hit, and while the ministry was claiming ignorance, they had ascertained that the explosions had been the result of sorcery.

Val, Skulduggery, and Tanith, had reached out to Ghastly and Ravel to learn more about what had happened, but the Church of the Faceless weren't exactly on the Sanctuary's christmas card list.

Which was what brought us to the current meeting. Everyone in the peerage was squeezed into one of the drawing rooms, along with my mom, Cyrus, my uncle, Ghastly, and Fletcher, who had brought the scarred man to participate. We were gathered around a familiar orb, glaring at an imposing man with black hair and spots of grey at his temples.

"Vincent, what the actual FUCK?" I spat at the older devil in the crystal ball. "Where are you? We needed to talk to you hours ago. Do you have any idea what's been happening?"

He glared at me tiredly. "Obviously. I was a tad busy, however. I spent the evening withstanding a siege at my summer home by those lunatics from the church. The Judas Priest isn't exactly a threat on his own, but try fighting him while holding a castlewide ward against an ICBM. They even managed to summon an Exorcist to aid in the assault."

"Like…an old priest and a young priest?" I said in confusion. "Does that kind of thing actually hurt us?" I kept it vague, since FLetcher and Ghastly didn't know about us, but I imagined this whole conversation sounded nuts to them, so I doubted this would stand out.

He sighed. "Firstly, yes, if it's done by someone with power, but more importantly, I'm not speaking of the religious purification right. Exorcists are a class of warrior angel. Not a particularly powerful class, but they're nearly impossible to get rid of. Luckily this world rejects them, so you only need to hold them off for a few hours before they vanish."

My blood went cold. "Iscariot can summon ANGELS?" That sounded…bad. I was pretty sure I couldn't beat an angel, not if it was enough of a threat that it worried Vincent. The old Bishop was from the same peerage as Alucard, and he was someone Skulduggery was wary of. Having heard what the Skeleton Detective got up to during the war, I didn't take that lightly.

"I wouldn't concern yourself with it." He said with a wave. "The higher spheres are complex and difficult to resonate with from this plane. Angelic summonings are involved, time consuming, and costly. Most likely this one was invoked using some sort of single use relic. Some of them can do that."

That was both comforting and deeply disturbing. It meant the catholics had access to a lot more powerful shit than I'd been giving them credit for, but we were getting sidetracked. "Alright, well, I get why you weren't there, but let me fill you in on what happened." I did, telling him about the trial, then because I realized we hadn't talked to him about it, about what happened to Finbarr.

To my absolute horror, Vincent's face drained of blood when I told him what had happened at the tattoo parlor. "Bermuda." He said coldly. "One of the oldest living necromancers. You're lucky he decided to run. If not, I suspect most of Dublin would no longer be standing." He glanced at Val. "He wouldn't risk letting loose with the Death Bringer nearby. The old monster is a true believer."

"Ok, but what about the wraith?" I asked with agitation. "Does this have some connection to Voldemort?"

He grimaced. "The Necromancers? Probably not, just bad timing. The Church of the Faceless? Perhaps. Grindelwald was one of Mevolent's generals back during the war. I was retired before the last Wizarding war, but I heard rumors their most recent Dark Lord was a student of his. He'd know how to contact them at least. But we have bigger problems than the Faceless. That wasn't a wraith, it was a remnant."

"A what?" I asked in confusion. " How is that different from a wraith? Because assuming it's a different kind of dark spirit I'm having trouble figuring out how that changes anything."

He shook his head worriedly. "It's a DEMON. They all are. When the demonic was purged from the world back in the 18th century during the Ninth Crusade, the remaining demonic entities left on the planet were captured by the Church. In order to prevent them from returning to hell and being resummoned, they weren't destroyed, but burned to near annihilation with holy fire. The remains, or remnants, were locked up by the church, until they were released a few decades later. At that point the Sanctuary took responsibility for them."

Skulduggery flinched. "Anton." He said worriedly. "The remnants are being kept at the hotel. Shudder mentioned he was guarding them, but things have been dicey lately, and he hired extra protection for them. Last I heard Sanguine managed to snag one before they chased him off." He looked at Val. "That's how they forced Kenspeckle to make them a Desolation Engine."

Val flinched. "That was a remnant? Poor Kenspackle. And poor Finbarr. Why did it take a bite out of Finbarr's magic though? It didn't do that to Kenspeckle." I had no idea who these people were, and Val could obviously tell, so she explained. "Kenspeckle Grouse is a friend, basically the head of Sanctuary R and D. Billy-Ray Sanguine is a psychopath who works for the highest bidder."

"Be that as it may." Said Vincent gravely. "The remnants are dangerous. One of them being free is a problem, but if it releases the OTHERS, things will get much worse. While the higher spheres are complex and difficult to reach, the fields of punishment are much simpler to access. The only reason demons aren't summoned anymore is because of the purge of the summoning texts by the Crusaders."

My mother raised her hand. "Pardon me, bit a history buff. Weren't there only EIGHT crusades?" I distinctly remember that being well established."

"As it was well established that Pompeii was destroyed by a Volcano." Said Vincent condescendingly. "Don't believe everything you read. The Church of the Faceless is a secondary priority. I can look into the attacks personally, but you need to head to the Midnight Hotel and check on the remnants. I would go but…Shudder and I don't get on. We met during the war and it wasn't a pleasant experience."

Skulduggery cocked his head. "Oh? Anton never mentioned meeting you. I suppose we weren't ALWAYS together during the war. Do you know where the hotel is at the moment? It should have only just moved."

"A moment." Said Vincent impassively, and the crystal ball suddenly went black, the older devil's form vanishing with a vague gesture.

I turned to the Skeleton Detective. "Moved? This place is a building right? What's up with that?"

"A quirk of the hotel." He said with a shrug. "Anton Shudder, a friend of mine from the war, created it as a place where people could go to seek sanctuary OUTSIDE the Sanctuaries, because he felt they were getting too political. It's neutral territory, and anyone who starts trouble there has to deal with Shudder."

I raised a brow at that. "And that's…bad?" I asked slowly. "Like is he tough?"

Before he could answer, the crystal ball flashed, and I realized it had only 'gone black' because Vincent had thrown a cloth over it. The old sorcerer looked annoyed. "Amsterdam. Near the Vondelpark." He said shortly. "Go to the hotel, check on the remnants. I'll inform you of any developments." Then the crystal ball went blank.

"Well." I said after a moment. "I'll be the one to say it. For someone so old, he has TERRIBLE phone etiquette."

Everyone had been sitting, staring at the crystal ball in silence, but after a second's pause, Shaggy started to snicker. Then Tracey, then Blaise, and like dominos falling everyone dissolved into gales of hysterical laughter. It wasn't that it was funny, it had been a lame joke, but everyone needed a release, and laughing was better than crying or punching a wall.

I finally calmed down after a minute, taking deep breaths as I regained my composure. "Alright." I said as my face smoothed out. "Skulduggery, you and Val are with me for this. Shudder knows you and Val is a known associate of yours. Tanith, you'd be helpful too if you think you're up to it?" Between Ghastly coming back from I guessed basically the dead and getting used to her new speed, my Knight had a lot going on, even without training Shaggy.

Speaking of Shaggy, the brown haired hippie was shooting shy glances at Tracey, who seemed to have notice and was preening under the attention. I hadn't really expected that, but I kind of liked the two of them as a couple. Of course, Blaise was leering at basically everybody, but none of the women in the room seemed to reciprocate, sadly for my friend.

Not that Blaise hadn't made an impression on any women lately, I'd seen Astoria giving him an appreciative glance last night when everyone had been arriving at the house. I was looking forward to Daphne's reaction to that, personally.

Tanith looked over at Ghastly. "What do you think? Want to stage another reunion? We could use someone with your skills. And I'm assuming the Sanctuary has a vested interest in the outcome of this little kerfuffle." Ghastly had apparently been named an Elder of the Sanctuary, a sort of side position to Ravel's 'Grand Mage' seat, and was therefore in a position to make that call.

Of course like I'd been worrying about earlier, he didn't know about us all being devils, but there was no reason to think anything coming would tip him off, plus with Tanith, Skuduggery, and Val all in my peerage my sense of the man told me even if he knew he wouldn't screw us.

He nodded slowly, standing and cracking his neck. It was impressive to see. Despite his scarred features, Ghastly was incredibly broad shouldered and muscular. He was built like a bruiser, even if he dressed like a butler. Speaking of which I really did need to ask him about some of those enchanted clothes he could make. Val wouldn't shut up about her new suit, even if it was just a sized up version of her old one.

In the spirit of not tipping our hand though, I turned to Fletcher. "Hey, teleporter, you think you could give us a lift? I'd be happy to pay."

He frowned at me, and I was pretty sure it wasn't out of malice so much as just general irritation. I didn't think Fletcher liked me much. Partly because he was still carrying a torch for Val and our relationship most likely looked odd to outsiders, but partly, I thought, out of sheer vanity. Which was fine, I was used to people resenting my good looks, but his ability was useful in keeping our secret, so I'd drop some gold if I had to.

In the end, I didn't. He blew out a breath. "Bloody hell. Fine. I guess I'm just a pack mule now. I hope you know that I'm going to GROSSLY overcharge you."

Smiling sympathetically, I clapped him on the shoulder. "We'll talk about it later." I said kindly, not planning to do any such thing. I was going to shortchange the shit out of him, but it would at least move things along. By the expression on his face, he knew it too. Poor guy, somebody should have warned him about making deals with devils.

June 26th, 2011, The Midnight Hotel, Amsterdam, 2:00 PM BST

To make matters simpler, as any self respecting teen with teleportation powers would have done, Fletcher had spent several years after he got his power jumping around europe to hit on pretty girls and stay in nice hotels. Apparently that was what he'd been doing when he met Val, actually, and they both seemed amused by the memory.

Luckily for us, the teleporter had been to the Vondelpark (another good reason to have him jump us over was me having never seen the place, so my teleportation wouldn't have worked anyway) so he was able to get us there directly.

Once we arrived, I let out a low whistle at the sight. "Ok, this place is pretty nice. I always thought Amsterdam was all cafes, sex clubs, and weed dispensaries."

"Nah, there's plenty of those around." Said Fletcher with a shrug. "But the architecture here is top notch too." At Val's arch stare, he averted his eyes. "I mean, the cafes and dispensaries. I've never been to a sex club."

I saw Ghastly and Tanith both smirk as Val snorted and rolled her eyes. Skulduggery chuckled, which was lucky because he was fucking unreadable as a skeleton and I wouldn't have known he was amused otherwise, especially with the scarf covering his face.. Which raised the question of how he lost his skull in a poker game. Must have been a seriously bad beat.

We followed the idyllic pond, walking through lush green grass, until we found a bridge and crossed over it. Skulduggery seemed to know where we were going now that we got close, and it only took a few minutes to find the place.

Stepping behind a hedge wall, we took a turn into a maze, then turned again, and found ourselves standing in front of a large victorian manor. I whistled as I scanned the place. "Wow, they nailed that haunted house vibe huh? Like, I've been to an ACTUAL haunted house, and the ambiance wasn't this creepy."

The skeleton chuckled. "Anton is a…morose, sort of person. Good to have at your back in a fight, but he isn't the most cheerful man."

Strolling up to the front door, he reached up and rapped on the wood, the bones of his fingers making a hollow tapping noise even through the gloves he wore to hide his boney appearance in public.

Nothing happened for a second, then the door slowly creaked open. I thought someone might have opened it at first, but a quick glance revealed an open space looking out on a red carpeted lobby. The room was surprisingly large and open, with staircases on either side of it leading up out of sight.

I could see several people walking across the lobby, some chattering, moving from one staircase to another or just turning into a side archway that looked like it was probably the way to a pool based on the towels and trunks.

"Welcome to the Midnight Hotel." Said a peaceful voice from off to the side. We turned to see a tall, pale man with a blank face looking over us. "Skulduggery, I trust you're not here to cause trouble?"

The skeleton shook his head. "Not at all, Anton, not at all. Perish the thought. You know me, a veritable pacifist, a man of serenity and inner stillness, why I'd never-"

"We'll make sure he behaves." Said Ghastly with a roll of his eyes. "It's good to see you Anton."

What could charitably be called a smile MIGHT have briefly lifted the corner of Anton Shudder's mouth. "And you, Ghastly. And you brought guests." His eyes narrowed at me, Fletcher, and Val. "Miss Low I've heard of, but the others aren't familiar. Apologies. Do I need to inform you of the rules?"

"Might be best." Said Ghastly politely. "Just to make sure everyone knows where they stand."

Shudder nodded. "Very well. The rules are simple. This is a place of peace, of sanctuary. My guests are free from harassment, and should you attack them within my walls I myself would intervene." He glanced dispassionately at Skulduggery. "I trust you've informed them that such a turn of events would be…unfortunate?"

"I have." Said the skeleton with a nod. "Anton is an old friend, and his magic is called 'gist'. It creates an unkillable super monster version of him from the depths of his subconscious that can't be stopped." At Shudder's slight eyebrow twitch Skulduggery shrugged. "What? A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend."

Ignoring him, the laconic hotel owner turned back to us. "I'd like your word to respect the neutrality of the hotel while inside. If not, I warn you, not only myself, but other guests will try to stop you. We don't worry about morality or history here. All guests are under my protection."

"You have it." I said after a minute. I kind of respected the neutral ground thing. "We came to look into a possible issue. We think one of the remnants you were holding may be loose in here. We need to prevent it from letting out the others for obvious reasons." I paused, coming to a realization. "I…have no idea how we're going to do that though."

Shudder's eyes narrowed, one of the most extreme emotional reactions I'd seen from the man. "I can double check the bindings, but I can't allow you near the room itself. I've already failed once, letting Sanguine steal one."

Sighing, I nodded. "Fine." I said with a sigh. "We can just keep an eye out. Maybe there's some way we can help if the rogue one shows up." Vincent seemed pretty sure he would though. The remnants wanted, quite literally, hell on earth. The best way to do that was to release the rest of its brethren.

"Very well." Said the man blankly. "Then I shall check you in for the evening. Only guests are allowed on hotel grounds for extended periods, after all." I smiled, nodding to him politely but my expression fell when I felt…something. Something awful and dark and cold.

I spun, eyes scanning the lobby. I knew that sensation, had felt it before. In the shrieking shack, when I was facing Voldemort. My eyes scanned the crowd, expecting to see someone in a turban or something but there was no one.

"You ok?" Said Val as she stepped up next to me in concern. She rested a hand on my shoulder, also looking for whatever had freaked me out.

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, sure." I said with false cheer. "I'm fine. Let's all go get checked in. I want to see what our rooms are like? This place looks fancy." I tried to make it seem like I'd spaced out. I didn't want Voldemort (or whoever I was picking up) to know I was onto them.

Besides the sense of something here, I had noticed a few instances of wizard robes from the guests. I couldn't be sure they were all working for Voldemort, but I'd bet Lucius's bank vault that some of them were. I'd only flitted over the crowd, but I'd seen a tired looking man with shaggy dark hair and wild eyes and an older scarred guy with a predator's glare.

Shudder escorted us to the desk where he checked us in, giving us only three rooms because he didn't have more, and then sent us on our way as he left to check on the remnants.

We got our keys, taking the old style bronze elevator up to the second floor and following the halls to rooms 2-1 to 2-3 where we'd been assigned. Once we arrived, I pulled everyone into the first room and looking around for anything out of place before I tried a silencing charm on the door, hoping my intent would be enough to make it stick in such a magic saturated environment.

I'd never run into interference issues with spells before, but something about the hotel seemed different. It was like pouring water onto an already full sponge. You needed to make room for more or you couldn't get much to absorb.

Once that was done, I turned to the rest of the group. Fletcher, Tanith, Ghastly, Skulduggery, and Val all looked a bit worried. "Voldemort is here." I said simply. "I don't know where, or in who, but he's here…somewhere. For some reason." I knew I sounded crazy, but it was true, I was sure of it.

"How do you know?" Asked Val. I appreciated she hadn't question IF I was right, just how I'd come to the conclusion.
I shrugged. "I don't think I can put it into words. When we fought back in the shack my soul touched his. I felt…stuff. Today I felt it again. Not a connection really, just sort of like magical static sparking from me to him. He's here, and he wants something. I don't think he's alone either. I saw a few wizards and I think some of them are his minions."

Ghastly looked slightly confused. "Who is this Voldemort person?" He said bluntly. "And why should I be afraid of him."

"Wizard terrorist." Said Skulduggery. "He was a spiritual successor to that german lunatic who worked for Mevolent. Grindelwald. I'm sure you remember HIM." Ghastly, from what I'd heard, had been in the war too.

Even through the scares I could see him pale and flinch back. "Nasty bugger." He growled. "Saw him turn a few friends inside out once. Cut down my cousin Rory at Provence. He's as bad as that?" His knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists, looking at Tanith and seemingly deciding his first move if shit got bad.

"No." I said bluntly. "From what I've read, Voldemort was never as good as his idol. Dumbledore took out Grindelwald in his prime, and their battle lasted for hours. Voldemort took off like a bat out of hell anytime Dumbledore showed up, and that was when the old man was in his nineties." Magic users might get more skilled with age, but even if he'd studied non stop, Dumbledore had to have lost a step reflex wise.

Everyone was quiet for a minute, until Val spoke up. "So…what does this mean? He has to be here for the remnants right? What could he want with them? Is he going to let them loose?"

"Maybe.." I said slowly. "But maybe not. Something about the remnants, the way they were described, reminds me a bit of Voldemort. He did…something, to his soul. He seems to have stitched in dark magic to hold it together, but he might be able to swap out the grafted parts for remnants. I'm not sure what that would do, but I get the impression it would be bad."

Val paled. "Agreed. I don't know much about the soul, but Sol- but my teacher told me not to mess with it. If we don't know who he is though what do we do? Just interrogate everyone? Do you think your sense of him would get stronger if you got close?" I could almost feel her eagerness to find a problem she could punch, and I sympathized, but I didn't expect it would be that easy.

"Doubt it." I said with a shake of my head. "I think our best bet is trying to talk to the other wizards." I turned to Skulduggery. "Then again, I'm not a licensed P.I, so I'm open to suggestions." It took a stupid leader to ignore a potential expert in their midst.

Skulduggery made a quiet humming sound. "I think you're right. If we identify his minions they might lead us to him. If not…well, maybe he'll lose his temper at our prying and attack us, then we can let Anton kill him." I chuckled along with everyone else, but I couldn't help but worry. Could Voldemort BE killed? I hoped so. Otherwise we might not make it out of this alive ourselves.

June 26th, 2011, The Midnight Hotel, Amsterdam, 6:00 PM BST

We spent a few hours exploring and looking around. We didn't want to tip our hand, and without the ability to attack anyone we couldn't do much anyway, so we were mostly spying and trying to figure out why everyone was there. A few of the people were in robes and easily recognizable as wizards, but there was no reason some of them might not be in disguise.

Sadly, we didn't learn too much, and by the time we were called for dinner, we were all more than ready to dig in and get back to our search.

Or we would have been, if dinner hadn't been a group affair. I think Skulduggery pulled some strings, because Anton seated us next to the two robed guys, and I decided that this would be a perfect time to strike up a conversation.

"So I take it from your robes you two are wizards?" I asked bluntly. I wasn't an interrogator or a spy. My feather light manipulation skills were decidedly rusty if you could even say they existed, so I decided to be blunt. "What are you doing in a place like this? I got the impression most of us don't mix with sorcerers."

The squirrely brown haired one looked like he wasn't going to answer, but old and gnarled bared his yellowing teeth at me in something approaching a smile. "Came for the food." He said sarcastically. His eyes skated over to Val before he licked his lips. "I've always been a fan of fresh meat."

The table creaked as I took offense, but to my shock Val kicked my in the side of the knee. I winced and shot her a questioning glance, but she was smiling sweetly at the animalistic man. "I'm something of a carnivore myself. I don't have a problem with freshness though, I like to butcher them myself." Her sugary tone belied the steel in her gaze that implied a clear threat to the older man.

To my annoyance, and her own, the man's eyes seemed to gleam even brighter. "I wouldn't mind seeing your claws kitten."

"If you keep looking at her like that." I finally said. "I'm going to gouge out your fucking eyeballs and feed them to you deep fried." I kept my tone civil and pleasant, but I made sure to look him right in the eye as I said it. I expected Val to object, knowing she could take care of herself, but she seemed mildly creeped out by the dirty old bastard, and just gave me a grudging nod of approval.

My comment, however, seemed to have gotten the attention of the other guy. "Well, well, well." Said the crazy looking brunette guy. "I think the baby Black has some balls. Just like your auntie, are you boy? Shame you haven't had a few years to mature. You might have given old Grayback here a nasty fright with such tough talk."

Greyback sneered at him. "I'm not afraid of some whimpering pup, Crouch. Keep your assumptions to yourself, we aren't all cowards."

"My aunt?" I cut in sharply. "Don't suppose you're talking about Andromeda or Narcissa?"

The guy Greyback called Crouch sneered at me. "Bellatrix, boy. Lucius's whore barely had a bit of spine, and the mudblood fucker can't claim descent from House Black anymore. Only one of the Black daughters was worth a damn, even if the crazy cunt would as soon kill me as look at me. The tits on her." He sounded dreamy. "Rudy was a lucky bastard."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a deeply unpleasant human being?" I asked conversationally. "Because if not, I'd be shocked. Bellatrix Lestrange is no member of House Black, and while we haven't announced it yet, Andi has been welcomed back with open arms."

He gave a disdainful laugh. "Blood traitor already, eh boy? I suppose it's no shock. Heard old Reggie put it that mudblood whore, but I was hoping blood would out. I suppose it did in the end." He shrugged. "Not that I blame him for dipping his wick. Tasty piece of meat that one, but you don't breed a steak."

Greyback laughed, and I felt my wrath ignite like fucking napalm. The table creaked as I leaned forward, about to lunge at him, when Ghastly put a hand on my shoulder from where he sat on my other side. "Don't." He said simply. "He's baiting you."

"It's working." I snarled. "But fine. I'll be good. I don't think I'll fill up on dinner though. First step you take out of this place I'll be on you like a lion on a gazelle. See how funny you think you are when I crack open your chest and chew out your still beating heart." My teeth were grinding to hard I thought they might crack, and I was shaking with rage.

Wizarding society was shit. I knew this. It was obvious and there was nothing I could do about it, but this whole bullshit magic racism party line from Voldemort's followers was next level infuriating, especially when aimed at my mother.

My grandmother had driven my mom off just by existing, most of the family forcing her from the only home she'd ever known just because she was born to muggle parents. My mom was the kindest and most caring person I knew, and hearing…fucking SCUM like this talk about her like that made homicidally angry, and not in a metaphorical way. In my head I had visions or tormenting Crouch like I hadn't been willing to do to that troll.

But I'd had practice controlling this shit. I'd JUST been telling Val that. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten internally before opening them and smiling politely at the nutcase across from me. "You seem to like talking." I said through gritted teeth. "Care to share what you're DOING here?"

Greyback frowned, turning to say something, but Crouch cut him off. "Obviously we're here for the remnants."

Grayback groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Damn it Crouch." He growled. "We're supposed to be laying low. A little taunting is one thing, but even I know not to just explain my whole plan to the enemy."

GIggling, Crouch shrugged. "Why not? What are they going to do." He turned to where Shudder sat down the table. "Oi! Gloomy. We're going to free all those nasty demons so they can kill all your guests. Doesn't that sound fun?" Shudder glared at him, and Crouch raised a hand to his ear mockingly. "What's that? Nothing to say? Thanks for your blessing." He dissolved into peals of manic laughter.

I'd originally wanted Greyback dead for his disgusting slobbering over Val, but Crouch had moved up my to kill list in record time. I wasn't sure which of them I wanted to murder first, though it was definitely close.

"Your friend sucks at making up rules." I told Skulduggery from down the table. "We could butcher these two idiots like chickens if he let us. They JUST told us they're planning to kill everyone here. Please don't tell me he's enforcing that promise?" I wasn't a kill happy person, but these guys were fucking awful.

The skeleton just shook his head. "Anton will intervene. And as much as I like you Ryan, I won't help you kill my friend. Even if I don't intervene directly Ghastly would, and Tanith won't act against him."

I grimaced, but he was right. Fully half my people wouldn't be willing to start a fight and might actively try to stop me from doing so.

Then I got an idea. I turned to Crouch, my smile becoming more real. "So…you work for Voldemort huh? How does it feel to be an errand boy for the world's most incompetent Slytherin?" I turned to Val, saying conversationally. "Man, standards in my house must have improved with time, because nobody in my year would have failed that badly at something as basic as attacking a residential neighborhood."

Two hands slammed down on the table as bugged out eyes glared at me. "Shut your fucking MOUTH mudblood. You're not worth the shit my lord scrapes off his boots!"

"Oh of course." I said placatingly. "I'm clearly inferior to the guy who couldn't kill a one year old. I'd heard his body count was pretty high, but I see now he probably just had his minions do the deed. Was Potter his first try? Wanted to start small? Couldn't even get THAT right."

Crouch's hand dove for his robe, but Greyback caught it with a snarl. "Think, fool. You know what he's doing. You were just doing the same. If you attack you'll be failing our lord. Is this…stain worth it? Worth the shame and humiliation? He'll get what's coming to him. They all will. Just be patient."

Crouch repeated my earlier actions, closing his eyes and exhaling. "You're right." He said, suddenly all smiles. "He'll die when we release the demons. Then there won't be anyone to protect his precious mommy."

"I'm going to kill you." I said bluntly. "Even if I have to go through Shudder to do it. You're not leaving line of sight of this building. The second you step out the door you die, and if you try to slip away in some sneaky way, I'll kill you before you leave no matter who tries to stop me. You won't last any longer than your pathetic boss."

Crouch stood, throwing his chair back off balance, and loomed over the table, glaring down at me, before he turned and stalked away, Greyback winking at Val before following.

Standing up, I stalked over to where Shudder was eating. "Alright. Enough of this. I'm not going to bother asking permission to fight, since I can tell it'll be useless, but I want to know where the damned remnants are. Worst case we set up in front of the door and force those assholes to go through us. If they attack us we can defend ourselves, right?"

He nodded. "Self defense is always permissible. I'll even come to your aid. I simply do not allow outright aggression." Glancing down at his Shepherd's Pie he sighed, setting down his utensils. For the first time, his blank features took on an expression of irritation. "Follow me."

Grinning, I turned to gesture at the others to follow me. We couldn't attack, but we could still use magic. I was going to conjure the thickest fucking shield around that door I could manage. If they wanted those remnants they'd have to go over my cooling corpse to get them, just on principle.

Voldemort had plans for those things, I knew it, and I absolutely didn't want to see them come to fruition.

We followed Shudder up the steps, and I ignored the grumbling by everyone who had to quit their meal. Shudder informed us that he would be willing to hold an emergency meal at midnight for us, assuming we prevented the attack. It was the first time he'd shown real signs that he wanted us to pull this off.

"Alright." I said as we stopped at the door. "Tanith, you go first. Do you door trick." She nodded, placing a hand on the wood.

"Withstand." She muttered. A blue light flashed over the door, and I grinned as I felt the huge surge in magic on the item. Not just her normal trick, the demonic energy she had access too now had definitely made it stronger.

I conjured a shield, leaning into my intent so it would stick around, then covered it with necromantic energy, Val doing the same thing. Once we had an impregnable bulwark of magical fuck you in place, we all relaxed a bit, and we got ready to settle in and wait. I wasn't sure how long we'd be here, but I didn't see those two assholes as managing to wait too long. This should all be over soon.

June 26th, 2011, The Midnight Hotel, Amsterdam, 8:00 PM BST

Crouch and Greyback weren't stupid enough to rush right to the room. I wished they had been, but we ended up waiting about two hours. It was so long that I'd started getting bored and losing focus before I heard the shuffle on the carpet at the end of the hall. Looking up, I smirked, raising an eyebrow at the two wizards.

"Took you idiots long enough." I said pleasantly. "We've had our defenses up for hours. Good luck getting through them without engaging in an attack." I suspected they might try that death curse Voldemort had used, I was told it was strong as hell and pretty easy to cast if you were an asshole.

From behind them though, another seven or eight people emerged. I raised an eyebrow at them, not sure why another seven ragged looking randoms would be useful.

Crouch smirked. "Oh, we know. We were preparing for our confrontation. As for attacking…well, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Or a mudblood." His wand flicked up, and I was ready and waiting to sidestep any attack. Shockingly, nothing came. He flicked his wand, murmuring "Lupus, Luna, Lupara." An orb of silvery light flickered into being on the tip of his wand, and he flicked it up to float above him.

The orb grew, slowly expanding to about the size of a beach ball. I raised an eyebrow at it, snorting in amusement. "That's it? A disco ball? Well I suppose disco IS dead." I turned to Val sarcastically. "Does this count as necromancy?"

"Uh…Ryan?" Val said hesitantly. "I don't think zombies are the monsters we need to worry about." She pointed down the hall, and when I looked at the spot she indicated I cursed.

All seven of the ragged people had begun to change. Their limbs contorted and twisted in strange configurations, their skin stretched and pulled, their eyes…seeing wolf eyes in a human body was fucking weird. The worst part of it all though, was the silence. They were being torn apart and put back together in front of my eyes, and not a single one of them made a sound.

Grayback's eyes were focused on me, his skin tearing itself apart and his mouth peeling back to reveal sharpening teeth. They all changed in size, ranging from the smallest (a female who was about eight feet tall) to Greyback himself, who towered over everyone at nearly fifteen feet of pure muscle.

My wand was in my hand immediately, but I held back. Shudder said we needed to act defensively. I needed to calm down and wait this out. They'd attack, and once they did we were officially off the leash.

With a bloodcurdling howl, Greyback blurred forward, and the streak of silver was met with a metallic flash as Tanith employed her Knight speed for the first time in a real fight, her sword of woven razor flashing out, imbued with demonic power. She tore right through the face of the large werewolf, slashing out his eyes…and got fucking backhanded down the hall for her trouble as he lashed out casually.

Val was there seconds later, slamming her shoulder into the big wolf, who stumbled back, before she started exchanging punches with the bastard, somehow managing to hang with the massive monstrosity.

I snarled, stepping forward, and levelled my wand at the closest werewolf. "INCENDIO!" I bellowed, shoving WAY too much power into the spell.

Luckily the hotel was heavily fortified with magic, so the flames were only really hitting the wolves. The curtain of fire washed over all of them except Greyback, who was pulled to one side by his current fight with Val. The flames licked violently at the walls, and I grinned as they faded…revealing a bunch of lightly singed and very pissed off werewolves.

"They're FIREPROOF?" I roared in frustration, getting ready to use a cutting curse or something. Why the fuck didn't I carry anything silver?

A burst of air pressure smashed into two of the wolves, and then another from the other side of me took a third, as Skulduggery and Ghastly stepped up to flank me. "Werewolves are highly magic resistant." Said my bone faced Bishop.

"WHY!?" I screamed in irritation. How the fuck was THAT fair? THey got to be giant hate beasts AND be magic resistant?"

Another click of his fingers created a vortex of fire to push them back, and I realized that elemental sorcery seemed to do slightly better, presumably because the spells were created by manipulating the world to make fire instead of just magicking it up. Still didn't actually stop them, but they were getting a bit more crispy than before.

Ghastly smashed one that jumped off the ground and then a wall, streaking down at Skulduggery like a descending comet. The wave of air pressure sent it squealing back down the hall.

"Son of a bitch." Groaned a familiar british voice as my Knight stepped up beside us. "That hurt. A lot. Rat bastard has a mean backhand." She frowned down at her sword. "Not sure how much good I'll be here boss. Swords are a bad match for werewolves. Unless I can behead one of them, but they're bloody fast."

Snarling, I stepped forward as one lunged, shoving my arm into its open mouth. It reflexively bit down, and I kicked it in the ribs violently, then got an arm around its neck. A knee smash made it release me, and my second arm came up, wrapping around its skull as I RIPPED it's fucking head off with my bear hands.
Tanith just stared at me in shock as I hauled back and hurled the severed wolf head at Grayback. I felt a blast of air and went flying, just in time to see a nasty looking purple curse hit the wall behind where I'd just been. I cursed internally. Fucking CROUCH.

The fanatical Death Eater (what a stupid name for an organization) had been hurling curses at the shields, which had cracked, but hadn't had time to actively do much since Fletcher had been teleporting in and out around him, sucker punching the harried wizard. Only glancing blows, mind you, but it had been doing the trick. Or so Fletcher had thought.

I roared in frustration. "WHO WON'T YOU PEOPLE FUCKING DIE?" Greyback was snarling, having been pushed back, but we'd run into a problem. Aside from tearing off his head, which Val wasn't really trained to set up, I didn't know how to fucking KILL these things. The only I'd beheaded was the eight footer I'd noticed at the beginning, and while Tanith was trying to take their heads now, even her speed could only do so much against a coherent pack.

And they WERE a pack. They had the tactics down, and were being much more cautious now that I'd killed the runt.

Crouch had used that weird speed up spell I'd seen Lucius's little raiding party use, and was hurling curses on a rotating basis at Fletcher, the shield, and sometimes one of us. I shot out another wave of flame, and Crouch raised a gleaming silver shield to tank the blast. I was forced to cut it short when one of the pack members attacked me again.

"Where the fuck is…" There was an unearthly howl that cut off my question as a pale blur slammed into Greyback, taking the big wolf off his feet and smashing him into the wall hard enough to crack enchanted plaster.

To her credit, Val didn't waste time staring, she whirled and threw herself at a pair of wolves trying to flank Tanith, taking them both to the ground. She smashed one of their heads like a melon with a booted kick against the wall, then grabbed the other in some kind of triangle choke that popped off its skull like a champagne cork.

Greyback, meanwhile was screaming as what looked like some kind of terrible funhouse version of Shudder tore into him with disgustingly long, jagged fingers.

The being that Skulduggery said was called a 'gist' looked terrible. It was like someone tried to recreate a human based on a secondhand account, and missed everything that made us bearable. Its eyes were pitch black with no sclera, its face too long, its jaw open and distended revealing rows of jagged disordered shark teeth.

The monster let out a keening roar, a kind of warbling screech of hatred and violence that made my head hurt just hearing it as it savaged the werewolf.

I left it to its work as I waded back in, grabbing a ten foot tall wolf from behind and german suplexing it into the ground hard enough to explode its head. I'd done it that way on purpose, which was good, because Crouch had tried to curse me and the body between us tanked the spell, which apparently flayed the victim.

With a shove, I hurled the skinless werewolf corpse at the wizard, who flicked it aside with a contemptuous bat of his wand and then began casting spells rapidfire.

Tanith and Val finished helping Skulduggery and Ghastly kill the last few werewolves easily enough, Fletcher popping in behind one as Val tabletopped it of all things, Tanith taking the head as Ghastly smashed a skull and Skulduggery pressure slammed one.

Finally, there were all dead, and Tanith walked over and lopped the head off the still suffering Greyback, who was being savaged so badly even werewolf healing couldn't fix that shit.

Grinning and cracking my neck, I turned to glare at Crouch. "I fucking TOLD you I was going to kill you, asshole." I spat. My wand flashed out, a spike of black extending like a spear towards Crouch's head, but his time warping spell let him dive to the side. He screamed in pain and hate, hand coming up to cradle his face, and I realized he hadn't been able to fully move.

The spear of dark had gone through his eye as he'd turned his head away, ripping a chunk out of the orbital bone. "You…fucking MUTT!" He howled. "My eye? MY eye? I'll kill you!"

I don't know what it was about the tone that tipped me, or why I suddenly knew I had to react, but I did. Crouch was about to do something dangerous, and I raised my hands, bellowing "PROTEGO!" As he flicked his wand.

"Pestis Incendia!" He hissed, and everything went fucking INSANE. A wall of green fire with a fucking face rolled down the hall, slamming into my shield, and I staggered back, eyes going wide as the damned thing started to unravel. I poured in my power, more intent. If that shield dropped we were dead.

I couldn't see anything on the other side of the shield, I'd erected it about halfway down the hall, protecting all my friends behind me.

After ten minutes or so, sigils started to glow on the walls. The flames retreated step by step until the monster fire was contained. Anton Shudder stepped out of a side hall, holding up a pendant that matched the symbols on the wall. "Well done." He said blandly. "You've clearly-" He froze, eyes widening in horror.

We all spun, and it took me a minute to process what I was seeing. The power usage from the fight had split our concentration. My shield, the necromancy, it was all gone, the door was exposed, even the blue light from Tanith's reinforcement faded.

Fletched stood in front of it, a large black key that had been slightly warped by fire in his hand. He'd snatched it off the gist, which had been burned alive by the green flames. With a cheerful smile, he shrugged. "Sorry about this." He said, his eyes flooding with darkness. "But I'm here for the family reunion." He twisted the key and turned the knob all in one motion, then the door flew open and all hell broke loose.

June 26th, 2011, The Midnight Hotel, Amsterdam, 9:00 PM BST

The explosion of dark spirits that erupted from the door was easily visible to me, though I didn't know if that was necromancy at work or just my own natural devilish senses, regardless, they swarmed us all, and I was barely able to see Fletcher vanish from where he'd been standing. I cursed silently, why hadn't I considered one of us could be possessed.

As I watched, one of the dark blurs sped towards me, clearly intent on possessing me, only to slam into my chest and bounce off, ricocheting into the wall. I saw the same phenomena as the others tried to grab Tanith, Val, and Skulduggery.

Sadly, the inborn defenses seemed devil related, and I was pretty sure Ghastly wouldn't be as lucky, but Val was right next to him and had raised a massive wall of darkness to block the spirits as they tried to grab him, and I was fast enough to do the same to Shudder, since I didn't want to risk fighting his word invincible hyde self after it was possessed. Once they realized we weren't available targets, they sped off in every direction.

"Group up." I shouted. "We need to fucking go. These things are about to have a lot of bodies to pick from, and I don't want to fight every person in this hotel."

Tanith blurred over to Val, Grabbing her friend and pulling her, towing Ghastly behind her as I pulled my necromantic shield containing Shudder over to me. The others joined us, and the last thing I saw outside the circle was a series of people with black eyes coming around a corner.

I considered going back to the manor and meeting up with the others, but…that felt like the wrong choice. Voldemort was scarier than I'd expected, and I needed help. I brought Val and the others back to the manor with instructions to pick up China and arrange some shields. My peerage might be immune to the remnants but my mother wasn't.

Once I'd dropped them off I headed for the one place I suspected I could get help. My mom was a badass, but she wasn't THE badass. Voldemort only had one equal among wizards, and I got the impression he knew more about what was going on than most.

I appeared on the Hogwarts grounds easily, heading up toward the castle. When I arrived, I approached one of the portraits and asked him to pass a message to Dumbledore that I'd come to see him. Fred and George had long since shared that the portraits acted as a spy network, and that they could reach the old man.

Within minutes, a house elf appeared, introducing himself as Wexy, and asked me to follow him to the headmasters office.

I'd put a lot of thought into where to go after the mess at the hotel. I didn't really blame myself for what happened. I didn't know how to check people for possession, and couldn't have been expected to see that coming. But the shock of the werewolves and my inability to hurt them had underscored that my mom's training wasn't going to cut it when it came to wizardry. Mom was good, but she wasn't the best. I needed to learn from someone POWERFUL, and he might be able to teach me more than just spell slinging.

Not that this had been an easy decision. I didn't KNOW Dumbledore, and I had an inherent distrust of authority figures. But something he'd said after the attack at the trial had stuck in my head. About old friends. I'd spoken to my uncle a bit about him too after our heart to heart though, and he had a lot of trust for the old man. It seemed like Dumbledore had his own plans for responding to the cult of the faceless, and his own resources to do it with.

I had my peerage, but I didn't know how to use them properly. There was more to running a secret organization than just slapping powers on a bunch of people you trusted, and I had no one to learn those skills from…until now.

The only question was whether he would bother to help. He seemed like a decent guy, but it wasn't like he owed me private tutoring. My only real leverage was my information about Voldemort, and that was mostly supposition. Sure, it was based on my own experiences, but who knew if he'd even believe me.

It couldn't hurt to try though. My main issue was that I'd been reacting for far too long. Being a devil was fun, but I'd just treated it as a power up and responded to whatever came my way.

This particular incident had shown that even when I stacked the deck enormously (the sheer power of the pieces I'd brought along should have prevented any issues) as long as I was playing defense I was at a disadvantage. There were too many weird powers out there, too many unusual creatures and items and who knew what else.

When we arrived at the stone gargoyle, Wexy loudly announced "Butterscotch Krimpets." As the monster stepped aside, revealing a spiral staircase up. Nodding to the little elf, I stepped onto the stone, ascending until I reached a sturdy wooden door banded in dark metal.

I knocked, and as I entered, I found Dumbledore at his desk, looking tired but welcoming. "Ah, Mr. Black. How unexpected, please, come in and sit down. I confess my curiosity is stoked. I hadn't anticipated you seeking me out, especially not so soon. Reaching Hogwarts in the summer months is challenging, I suppose you must have come through Hogsmeade. I did hear you were friendly with Rosemerta."

I blinked. That…had not occurred to me. Also I really should visit Rosie. I'd gone to see her a few times over the year, just to chat about my dad and keep her company. She was a wonderful person, and I really enjoyed the butterbeer at her place.

"Sadly not a social call." I said with a wince. "I wanted to get ahead of an oncoming problem. I thought you might be interested in hearing about it. It partly involves the disappearance of professor Quirrel in the middle of last year." I was taking a bit of a risk, but not much of one. Worst he could do was lock me up in a wizard prison that couldn't contain me anyway, and my peerage would bust me out even if they managed to keep me contained.

Dumbledore was one cool customer, his smile didn't even slip, just becoming a bit puzzled as he raised an eyebrow and gestured for me to sit down across from him.

I did, and he held out a small glass bowl for me. "Lemon drop?" He said kindly. I passed, because I'm not a big lemon guy, and he shrugged and popped one in his mouth, proceeding to speak around it with an ease that implied he did this a LOT. "Now, why don't you fill me in on what you know about professor Quirrel's disappearance, and how you came upon that information."

Considering what to tell him, I paused. Should I fill him in on everything? In the end I decided it was necessary. I readied myself to teleport at a moment's notice if he turned hostile, but given the connection between my fight with Voldemort and my supposition about why he'd helped free the remnants…I needed him to know everything.

So I told him. About the stone, about the fight, about the hotel, everything. I was taking a lot on faith here…but I trusted, from what Sirius told me and from what I'd seen of him, that Dumbledore was a big picture guy. He'd prioritize the remnant outbreak over a little thing like artifact theft.

By the time I finished, his expression was grave. "My, that's quite a tale." He said thoughtfully, stroking his beard as he stared off into the middle distance. He didn't sound skeptical, more distracted, as if he was just processing everything still.

"So are you going to try to take the stone back?" I asked mildly. "Because I have to be honest, I have some use for it at the moment. I'd appreciate it remaining in my care."

He glanced at me over his half moon glasses. "I suspect." He said slowly. "That there is more to you than you are letting on, Mr. Black. In fact I am sure of it. I believe your story, which opens up many other lines of questioning that I believe shall need to wait. The stone, I'm afraid, is not mine to give." I opened my mouth to respond, but he held up a hand. "However, Nicholas and Perenelle do not know of its whereabouts and have a large stockpile of elixir."

"Wait…" I said in shock. "You're going to let me KEEP it? Because that's crazy. Like, I know I should say otherwise, but letting an eighteen year old have that thing is pure lunacy."

He grinned at me, a more dangerous expression than I'd ever seen on him. "No one has accused me of sanity in many years, Mr. Black, and for good reason. But no, you will not be allowed to keep the stone. You may SAFEGUARD the stone, for the moment, until the current crisis is over. I can see your intention to remain involved, and the elixir will act as a safeguard for you and your friends, should they follow you into this mess as I suspect."

Despite the benevolence, I could sense curiosity under there too. Leaving us with the stone gave him reasons to check up on me. He wanted to know more about me, about how I worked. I debated telling him, in fact, I debated offering him the second bishop piece…but it just felt wrong. He wasn't the right fit.

"I assume you've already guessed what my next request will be then?" I asked with a laugh.

He nodded slowly. "You want instruction. Presumably on some kind of combat magic. Transfiguration and Defense against the Dark arts are my strongest areas. One of those, perhaps?"

"DADA." I said firmly. "I can't do Transfiguration, though if you felt the need to tutor Suzie a bit I wouldn't say no."

He smiled kindly. "Alas, would that I could. I'm quite a busy man, Mr. Black. I admit, the mystery of your particular circumstances intrigues me enough to find time in my busy schedule. It doesn't hurt that I'll be teaching you combat magic alone. I know you've chosen Filius's course as your major, so I won't be intruding too heavily on your studies."

"Is that really important?" I said in exasperation. "I just told you that a plague of demons are going to hit us soon. Shouldn't we be maximizing my power gains?"

He shook his head. "You're incorrect." He said simply. "The remnants won't flock here. Had they been released nearby they might have assaulted Ireland, cradle of magic that it is, but being in the middle of the continent they'll spread out unchecked. The world WILL change, I assure you, but we have time to make preparations, and a mind is a terrible thing to waste."

"What about Voldemort?" I asked him sharply. "The remnants were working with his people I-"

"You are most likely correct." Said Dumbledore. "I suspect he will attempt to integrate pieces of demonic spirit into himself. Lord Voldemort has always been obsessed with sorcery. That's why he took a name, as the sorcerers are wont to do. Necromancy, in particular. I believe he will use the remnants as an attempt to unlock his ability to practice proper sorcery."

I sighed. "Which means he'll lay low for now. But what about the Malfoy Manor? I assumed he was working with the faceless, was I just wrong?"

"I don't know." He said worriedly. "And that is perhaps the most terrifying part of all this. In any case, you've made your case, young Mr. Black. Return tomorrow to begin your lessons. For the moment I must be off. I have parties to notify about this outbreak. Cornelius Fudge may not listen to my counsel as often as he used to, but I still have friends on the international stage. I can only hope their trust will be enough to blunt the impact of this crisis."

I nodded, getting up to head out of the castle. I had a lot to think about, and I had to get ready for tomorrow. I had a feeling Dumbledore's training would make my moms' look like a walk in the park.

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