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,

41. Chapter 41

December 29th , 2012, Room of Requirement, Hogwarts, Scotland, 6:00 AM BST

"Thanks for doing this, Professor." I said to Dumbledore as me and the rest of my people stretched and prepared for the training session. When I'd approached him, I assumed he'd give me a list of Grindelwald's favorite spells or maybe a memory of the fight. I did NOT expect him to off to directly tutor the group of us in combat.

I'd fought Dumbledore before, albeit not seriously, and I knew one thing about him. He came to win. The others saw and old man, deceived by his frail external appearance, but I'd been on the receiving end of that wand enough time to know what he really was. A monster.

And he hadn't even been trying the last time. He'd limited himself to cutting curses, teaching me how to apply various forms of intent. Dumbledore wasn't a curse user though. He was a Transfiguration Master. And I was eager to see what the old man could do when he wasn't holding back.

He gave me a warm smile. "Of course, dear boy. Preparing you to encounter one of the most terrible magic users in the last century is surely a worthy use of my time. You are my students, after all, and it is my job to ready you for life's great challenges."

"I think our great challenge today is you." I laughed. "I'm going to go address the troops. We'll meet you out there." I gestured to the ring, which was a literal honest to gods arena complete with sand and stands. Smiling, he turned and strolled off to wait, and I turned to talk to my people.

Or some of them. Dumbledore was down to tutor students, but asking him to teach Natasha and Skulduggery seemed a bit out there, they were up in the stands watching with Scooby and Tanith. "Alright." I said, looking over them seriously. "I'll say this once. If you don't come at him with everything you have, he's going to stomp you into powder."

Val snorted. "Him? He's like…a thousand. No chance he's fast enough to take us."

"Albus Dumbledore." I said bluntly. "Is one of the most powerful wizards in the world. He doesn't need to speak his spells, and only occasionally bothers with his wand. All those tricks with the cutting curse? I learned that from him, and I only scratched surface. He can fuck with time the same as other powerful wizards, and it lets him keep pace even with our speed, and he can cast basically as fast as he can think. Don't hold back."

Val looked grim, but nodded, understanding a bit what I meant. A bit. Because even I didn't know the extent of it. This would be my first time going up against Dumbledore when he was serious.

We headed down into the arena, and once we notified him we were ready, we counted down, and it began.
I blurred forward, taking a straight shot at the old wizard…but I wasn't fast enough. The sand churned, exploding upward as it shifted into a massive bulwark of solid stone. I snarled, my wand flicking out, a cutting curse splitting the wall as I shoved probably a bit too much power into it.

The wall split, but the two sides shifted again, reshaping into a pair of stone serpents, one of which attacked me while the other darted back and curled protectively around its creator. From behind him, a pair of colossal stone hands shot up from the sand, each one attacking one or more of my friends.

One full hand assaulted Val, who tried her damnedest to tear it apart with her air and fire magic. Each time she managed to cause damage, the hand reformed, twisting and warping to block her attacks in the least damaging way.

The other hand was simultaneously up against Blaise, Suzie, Daphne, Hannah, Tracey, Shaggy, Seras, Fleur, and Theo. Each finger seemed to move independently, shifting itself into a series of lion headed tentacles that attacked them independently, seemingly operating by its own will. I dodged an attack by the serpent I was fighting solo, cutting into it, only to curse as it knitted back together.

I opened a portal behind Dumbledore, my hand flashing out to grab for his throat, only to have it knocked away as an eruption of molten stone surrounded him. As we watched, the stone coalesced into some kind of golem, enshrounding him and becoming something like power armor, while providing all around defense.

Retreating, I called the other back, funneling my power into a massive dome shield around us. "Holy shit!" Panicked Tracey. "What the fuck was THAT? He's operating like…twenty constructs at the same time, and he's doing it perfectly. And that wasn't normal stone. My magic was doing less damage each time. I think it was some kind of magical rock."

The ground rumbled ominously, and I felt a dozen stone lion heads smash into my shield over and over. I grimaced but ignored it for now. "That was a warmup." I said bluntly. "I saw him before the lava consumed him. He hasn't even drawn his fucking WAND yet."

Wandless magic, for wizards, was like a muscle. The more you used a spell the more used to it your magic got. After a certain point, you could flex that muscle without the training wheel that was a wand. There was a school in africa where they ONLY used wandless magic, but it was slower to learn, less capable of multi-tasking, and usually less powerful, so we didn't bother here.

Of course, as devils, we could use any spell wandlessly, and it would be just as powerful. It was a unique advantage, but not the only one. Wandless spells could be very dangerous in the hands of an expert, because it enabled instantaneous casting, finer control over individual spells, and astonishing reaction times.

At least, that was how fucking NORMAL people used them. Dumbledore seemed to be so skilled at Transfiguration that all the 'weaknesses' of wandless casting had been smoothed out. I could only assume he'd similarly compensated for the weaknesses of casting with a wand, which meant he could do THIS, but harder and with more variety, the second he drew his wand.

It kind of pissed me off, really, that he'd decided we were so pathetic he was essentially fighting us magically left handed. "Val." I snapped. "Necromancy."

We hadn't used it initially because Val's necromancy was staggeringly powerful, and honestly even I'd been underestimating him. No more though. I turned to Seras. "I want you to hit him head on. Use your blood magic. Fleur, cover her with your fire magic. The rest of you, I want full offense. Attack him head on. Blow the shit out of that golem. Make him work for it. We need to open up that turtle shell. I'm dropping the shield on three."

Counting down, I released the spell, and we all exploded into action. Before, we'd been scattered, basically doing our own things as we came at him piecemeal. That had been a mistake. Against someone like Dumbledore, we needed to stand united.

My peerage levelled their wands and howled curses and spells, blasting curses, bombardment hexes, and a dozen other force magics sailed through the air at the golem. The serpents advanced, and I imposed myself in front of them, reaching into my magic and inverting one of my most powerful spells. Because I knew the Black Burn…which meant I knew FIENDFYRE.

A massive serpent of flame met one of the two of stone, and my hand came up, creating an Asclepius of equal size, one snake of unquenchable fire and one of all consuming acidic water matching the two collosi.

Above us, a pair of massive black hands arose from Val's ring, catching the two hands Dumblodre had conjured and holding them still.

The wave of powerful attacks smashed into the golem, and I started to get excited…until the back of it exploded, sending Dumbledore gracefully flying back, beard waving majestically as he skipped backwards across the sand like a stone on a pond without losing his feet, the lava golem eating all the spells. He smiled that grandfatherly smile at us and said. "Well done. I suppose its time to get serious." And then the world ATTACKED.

Walls, ground, even the air around us, a wave of powerful Transfiguration magic rolled off him, and everything around us became a weapon. A living world in which we were all trapped, inescapable as it bore down on us.

I freaked the fuck out, I'll admit it. Up was down, down was sideways, and sideways was trying to fucking murder me. I tried to counter, tried to defend, but how do you defend yourself against EVERYTHING. I was attacked from all sides, and my serpents hurled themselves at me to try to help as I called them back, but they slowly eroded, burning themselves off tearing through the now mercurial air and the storm of flying rocks and metal and whatever the fuck else was mixed into the chaotic maelstrom of fucking suck surrounding us.

My friends were screaming, Val was bellowing in rage, Suzie was panicking, and I had no clue what the fuck to do and then…it stopped.

Everything was suddenly fine. We were all kneeling on the sand, covered in bloody cuts and burns and bruises, hair askew and eyes wild. Dumbledore stood unconcerned across the arena, buffing his wand on his voluminous sleeve.

"So." He said genially. "That was an excellent first attempt. But I have some notes."

We just stared at him. "What the actual poltergeisting demon shitting fuck was THAT?" I gasped, realizing that I could breathe now, which implied I couldn't before and that even the air in my lungs had been attacking me.

"Language, Mr. Black." He tutted gently. "And that was the spell I created for my Transfiguration Mastery. Mundi ad Bellum."

Latin for "World at War". Which was…fitting. Because we'd literally been attacked by the fucking universe. Like we'd been rejected by some sort of cosmic immune system and earth itself became the antibodies.

"Grindelwald can do THAT?" I said, appalled. "Or can he beat that? Did you use it on him in your fight? How long did he last."

"I did." He said solemnly. "And four hours and nineteen minutes. Admittedly, I've refined it somewhat. But Gellert is a magical fanatic. Research and development is all he cares about. He may have been magically bound over the years, but you can be assured he's been training as best he could. Drilling spells in his mind, practicing wand motions, refining his casting. He WILL be more dangerous now then when last we met."

I puffed out a concerned breath. "Well, shit." I said. "That's terrifying. And learning to counter that, it'll help us?"

"Mundi ad Bellum is perhaps the most perfect tool for training battle reflexes and awareness in my possession." He responded. "Were you not such an exceptional group I wouldn't have used it. In fact, I tested you before that point just to be sure you wouldn't immediately die when it was unleashed. I must say, I wasn't disappointed. Third year students lasting a full ten seconds. I daresay most graduates wouldn't have managed as long as that."

Yes, despite the praise, I didn't feel victorious. I felt fucking horrified. Ten seconds. We'd withstood that HELL for ten seconds, when Grindelwald had been in there for FOUR HOURS. If he could do that…we needed this training. We needed as much of it as we could get.

Climbing to my feet, I took a series of calming breaths before speaking. "Alright. Everyone back to one. We're going again. That is, if you're still up for it professor."

He smiled genially. "I'm not as young as I once was, but I can still manage that much." We made our way back to the starting positions we'd taken last time, and prepared. This was going to be grueling, but we needed to get better. Or we might not all survive.

January 24th , 2013, Room of Requirement, Hogwarts, Scotland, 6:00 AM BST

"Ten minutes." Said Dumbledore with a smile as we emerged from Mundi ad Bellum. "I must say, you've made quite the improvement since we began. A sixty times jump in capability is nothing to scoff at. How were you able to manage such a strong showing so quickly?" He was glowing with pride, and I appreciated it. It hadn't been easy.

"Communication." I said with a laugh. "Coordinating my forces better." Which was true. It left out that I had become more and more in tune with my instincts as we fought, learning to operate my team as an extension of myself.

Mundi ad Bellum was a nightmare made real. It was the single best training for combat awareness I'd ever heard of, and it had slowly ground off the rough edges of my command in battle in a way I hadn't know was even possible. It was frankly absurd, the level of responsiveness and finesse I could command my people with now.

When we were inside the war, it was like…I could see a version of us all that was a little more perfect. Not head on, just out of the corner of my eye, but I COULD see it. A step to the left, a counter, a slight angling of an attack. It was all there.

It was like being under so much pressure was slowly forging me into the commander I knew I could be. It was kind of intoxicating. We let the others head of to rest and refuel, and Dumbledore pulled me aside to ask me a question I hadn't expected, even if I probably should have.

"So, when did you discover your gift for divination? If I might be so bold as to inquire about such a personal topic." I froze. Then remembered based on his comment that this wasn't some dark secret. Wizards COULD sometimes see the future. Probably not the same way I did, but apparently there was variance. Of course Dumbledore would recognize it. It would be impossible to miss under these circumstances, training so close under so much pressure.

I shrugged. "It's nothing like that." I said, downplaying my power. "I just have good instincts."

He nodded. "That is often a trait demonstrated by those gifted with the second sight. We actually have a class here dedicated to the subject, should you wish to pursue it."

"I've heard…noncomplimentary things about the teacher." I said skeptically. "I'm told she doesn't do as much teaching as she does prophesizing the deaths of her students, all of whom seem to be happy, healthy, and alive."

I actually had looked into the divination class here, at the beginning of the year. Trelawney was supposed to be a huge fraud who couldn't tell the future from a hole in the ground, and I didn't have time for that shit. It sucked, because I had a feeling that divination magic, like the real methods, might work really well for me, paradoxically it might BE my divination telling me that actually, but it didn't matter without a proper teacher.

He sighed. "Sibyl is…eccentric. But aside from having a genuine, albeit somewhat inconsistent, gift for prophecy, she is, in fact, a Master in her field. She knows the methods and applications of divination better than any witch you could ever ask to learn from, her gifts simply do not lend themselves to the majority of those methods, sadly for her."

"Those who can't do, teach?" I said with a laugh. He gave me a reproachful look and I rolled my eyes. "What?"

"The professors at Hogwarts are among the finest minds in their respective disciplines." He said somberly. "It would behoove you to treat them with the respect that those of their station are due."

I sighed. "I didn't mean anything by it. But fine, you think she could help me learn to harness my 'abilities' better?" Learning to integrate my ability in combat had paid dividends in battle, and I was intrigued by the idea of it being useful in other ways. If Trelawney could help, I wasn't turning her down. In fact, I could think of a bunch of uses for divination. Finding the other half of a certain demonic spellbook, for one.

"I believe she could." He acknowledged. "Should you approach her respectfully. In truth, even that might not be necessary…for her. I however require you treat my professors with all due respect. Should you wish to avail yourself of their knowledge."

Putting up both hands, I smiled disarmingly. "Whoa, don't shoot. Sorry about the sniping, I thought we had that kind of relationship."

Chuckling, the old man relaxed. "I can, how do the youth of today phrase it? Take it as well as I can dish it out. I would just prefer you speak of my coworkers with a bit more deference. Especially when you're planning to approach them for aid."

"Hey, you two!" Called Val as she jogged up, looking excited. "Are we going again? I was in the zone this time."

I turned to look at the others, who were mostly sprawled on various surfaces dripping sweat and small amounts of blood. "I think the others are done for the day. I'm pretty sure Blaise is crying right now."

"No I'm not!" Shouted my best friend from across the room. "There's something in my eye!"

"Yeah, it's called tears." I shouted back. "That's what crying is dipshit. Wait, sorry, I forgot how sensitive you are. Did I hurt your feelings?"

He made a sound halfway between annoyance and laughter. "You dick. My body is tearing up from the pain. It's not an emotional response. You'd better shut up about me being a wuss if you know whats good for you."

"Or what?" I snorted. "You'll cry about it?"

"No." Said an icy voice behind me. "Or I'll cry about it." My eyes widened and I turned to see a furiously pouting Stori, arms crossed as she flashed her big brown eyes at me sadly. "I don't like it when you're mean to my boyfriend, Ryan."

I grimaced. "I was just teasing him." I protested. "He can fight his own battles, you know. He doesn't need you to coddle him. He's not some little helpless lost sheep."

"Is that a joke about my bo peep costume?" She gasped. "Blaise, you weren't supposed to tell anyone about that! I told you I was embarrassed about letting you do that thing with the shepherd's crook!"

My hands slammed down over my ears. "Merlin Stori, TMI! It's just an idiom. Oh gods what did he do to you? Wait, no, don't tell me. I don't want to know." I turned to the others. "No more practice today. Human interaction is cancelled, Stori broke it."

Tracey cackled as she walked up to us. "It's so cute how protective you are of your little sis. Shame it's such a waste. The things that girl tells us in private. Good thing she's with Blaise, or that kinky little bitch would be giving you nightmares with all the boys she'd be running through the dorms. She's making up for lost time nice and hard."

I fought the urge to cover my ears and hum. "Gross! Not my Stori! Stop it Tracey or I'll put a silencing hex on you that'll last for weeks. Daphne are you going to let her talk about Stori like that?"

"Honestly." Daphne huffed. "You'd think she was five the way you coddle her. Astoria is a beautiful and vivacious young woman. Of course she and her boyfriend who she loves are going to have an active sex life. Do you think what we do together is disgusting?" Considering her reaction to Blaise dating Stori at first that felt hypocritical, not that I was stupid enough to use the H word. "Any man would be lucky to be with Stori."

"And they know it too." Said Seras helpfully. "They drool over that rack of hers like a hobo floating towards a cartoon pie on a windowsill." We all turned to her and she shrugged. "What? I wanted to twist the knife a bit. Besides, Stori can take it."

My surrogate sister pouted furiously at all of us, then pointed at my girls. "Arse. Tentacles. Praise kink. Shall I go on? Honestly, it's like none of you know the rules of girl talk."

"I'm going to the divination tower!" I said forcefully, turning and stalking out of the room. "Don't follow me!" The laughter from behind me following me into the hall. I chuckled as I shut the door, not nearly as horrified as I pretended. I was protective of Stori, but she was an adult, I wasn't going to freak out over hearing her sex life existed.

That said, I could tell that Stori felt loved when I was overprotective. She'd gotten so much freedom so quickly that she sometimes seemed almost lost with what to do with it all. I'd noticed that when Daphne was overprotective and pushy, Stori seemed to preen a bit, so I'd started doing it too. She pouted and sulked like a spoiled princess, but she always acted a little closer to me when I was treating her like my little sister, and it became kind of our thing.

Smiling, I made my way up a few floors, arriving at the entrance to the divination tower without much trouble. My instincts made my sense of direction bulletproof, and I almost never got lost. "Avast, ye scurby cur!" Boomed an annoying voice. "What dost thou wish from the tower of peril?"

I turned to see a tiny man in armor in a portrait. "First of all, pirates talk like that, you're mixing genres. Secondly, did you say SCURBY? With a B?"

"Aye!" Called the annoying knight. "I Sir Caodgan, have become a salty dog of the sea. I was recently introduced to the vocal stylings of my piratical brethren, and verily, I have adopted their dulcet tones as mine own form of speech!"

Deciding not to engage with the stupid painting, I walked past him, blocking out the screams of challenge following me up the cramped staircase. Trelawney lived in her tower, as far as I knew, and despite it still being winter break, I was given to believe she'd be around. Apparently she never left.

When I got to the top of the FAR too scraped staircase, I knocked on the door. There was a slight pause before someone asked. "Who is it?"

Resisting a comment about how a real seer would have known who it was, I pasted on a smile. "Professor Trelawney. It's Ryan Black, I was hoping to speak to you about private lessons. If you're free."

The door creaked open and a pair of owlish eyes behind coke bottle glasses peeked out. "Black you say?" Her eyes narrowed. "I knew a Black once. He was horribly cruel to me. Made fun of my glasses. Are you related to Sirius Black?" I rolled my eyes internally. Well at least she hadn't been fucking him. I'd been half expecting that.

"Distantly." I lied briefly. "I've heard horrible things. Might I come inside? We could discuss this over some tea?"

She stared for a minute before nodding shortly and stepping back. I smiled and walked by…before coming to a dead stop. The damned tower was so full of smoke and incense I felt like I'd gotten slapped in the face by a scented pillow full of bricks. "I love what you've done with the place." I wheezed.

"Thank you." She preened. "Sage to drive away negative energy and cleanse the spirits, lavender to calm, and of course cannabis, for its medicinal properties." I grimaced. Weed. Of course. Thats what that was. I didn't bring it up. She gestured for me to sit down, and I did, and she poured us both cups of tea.

I nodded my thanks, toasting her, before sipping on the chamomile blend. I added sugar, as usual, but it was pretty good. "So, I was hoping to ask about private lessons. Will you teach me?" I got right to the point.

"Perhaps." She said mysteriously. "We shall have to see if you pass the test."

"Test?" I asked in confusion. "What test? When did you want me to take it?" I glanced around, wondering if there was a desk I could use.

She chuckled darkly. "Why, you've already begun." She snatched the cup from my hands as I took the last sip and flipping it, slamming it down on the table. "Now." She said with a manic grin. "Let us see your results."

January 27th , 2013, Landstadt Wizarding Village, Gstaad, Switzerland, 6:00 AM BST

"So are we sure there will be a clue here?" Asked Suzie as she strolled down the street, arm in mine. "Or was this just an excuse to squire us about town." She beamed happily, her pale cheeks dusted with crimson from the cold and her button nose just as red. "Because I'm always happy to spend time with you."

Fleur, on my other side, giggled. "Oui. You need no pretense to enjoy a day out with your lovely ladies."

"Noted." I said with a laugh. "But I've recently started divination training, and I'm pretty sure there's going to be a clue to help me find Grindelwald here. The man HIMSELF isn't around, obviously, or I wouldn't have just brought you two, but some key piece of evidence is here." I'd done about twenty readings to narrow this information down, but the statistical likelihood of twenty different readings across six mediums all giving me the same answer were astronomical.

My Veela nodded. "While I wish you had more confidence in my strength, I understand you simply wish to protect what is yours. I appreciate your care."

I leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. "I'm glad, because it'd be yours either way. You're stuck with me, pigeon. I've official grown attached." I winked at her, turning my face away in time to avoid the outrage I knew would be spreading across hers.

"P-Pigeon?" She shrieked. "I am no PIGEON. I mean, I am not a bird, but if I was I would certainly be something graceful and majestic like a dove or a swan. PIGEONS are rats with wings! I demand you think of another term of endearment. Something elegant. I refuse to be associated with SKY VERMIN!"

Suzie was trying her hardest not to laugh as our girl got extremely french about my perceived slight. I'd been tweaking her, if only because I liked that Fleur was comfortable enough with me now to GET annoyed. It meant we were growing closer.

"And another thing! I won't be…" She trailed off when she slowed down enough to look at our faces. "You were…how do you say? Fucking with me." She pouted adorably. "That is not very nice."

"Sorry angel." I said with a laugh. "I promise I was teasing fondly. But don't think I'm not counting on you girls. After all, I brought my mistress of transfiguration and the most powerful Vella in the world." I winked at her, enjoying her blush. Fleur was a sucker for flattery, as long as it came from someone whose opinion she cared about.

Suzie preened as well. "I wouldn't say a MISTRESS." She said happily. "But I've learned quite a bit from Professor Dumbledore over the last month. Just watching him in action has put me well on the path to figuring out my mastery spell in a few years. Why exactly do you need our help for this mission?"

"Because the chalet where my lead holds court is...difficult to access. Sven Jorgensen has a fascination with transformation. Werewolves, Transfiguration masters, Veela, if something turns into something else he loves it. And I need you two to be distracting." I grinned at them boyishly. "Something I personally think you excel at."

Fleur brightened. "Apologies, I thought perhaps he was enamored of large breasted women. It is a trait we both share. Not that I would not look pretty for you as a distraction, but…I find being asked to distract an enemy based on my abilities much more palatable."

I frowned. "I can be kind of a dick sometimes." I admitted. "I get tunnel vision, and I let my instincts guide me a bit too much. But I will never ask you to bounce your tits for other men as a way to divert attention." I stopped, turned to Fleur and took her face in my hands. "I seem to be failing at showing you this, so I'll say it again directly. You are more to me than your body or face. You are sweet, and fun, and a total nerd about horses, and kind, and thoughtful. Seras, and Daphne, and Suzie, and me and Val all care about you very much, for a myriad of reasons that don't have anything to do with your hourglass figure. Do you understand."

Her eyes were glued to me, wide and unblinking, and I saw hope and longing within them, and a shine of unshed tears. "Oui." She whispered, somehow managing to speak French despite our respective translation abilities. "Desole, mon cher."

I leaned in and kissed her forehead. "You don't ever need to be sorry for how you feel. I clearly just need to show you how adored you are more often." I winked at her, though I wasn't really joking.

"That…" Said Suzie wetly. "Was SO BEAUTIFUL." We both stumbled as she grabbed us around the neck and pulled us both in for a very tight, very bouncy group hug. "You're both so WONDERFUL! Ryan, that was so sweet, and Fleur, he's right, we adore you for so many reasons. I love you both so much!"

I laughed, trying to get away (though not trying very hard) and then gave up and let her cuddle me, meeting Fleur's beaming eyes from where she was being snuggled in front of me. Suzie, even before she had velvet airbags on her chest, gave the BEST hugs. She eventually let us go, and we stumbled back, laughing and smiling, because despite the cold air here in Switzerland, we both felt so…warm.

Putting an arm around each of them, we continued on, following the directions I'd found to the Chateau de Alchemie where Sven Jorgensen reigned.

Arriving, we were stopped at the door by a pair of big muscular blonde guys with necks wider than their heads. "Stop." The nearest one said. "To enter, you must demonstrate your alchemie, your transformation."

I spread my wings. Wizards just assumed it was transfiguration, and I had no problem cheating. Fleur transformed her fingers into claws, and Suzie flicked her wand, shifting the snow below us in one spot into a little dancing puppet made of crystalline ice. It was cute, so I placed a quick preservation charm on it, and once she'd shown off I slipped it into my belt pouch so she could keep it for later. Suzie got attached easily.

When we entered the chalet, I was kind of blown away. There were so many things going on, jellyfish floating through the air, strange animals swinging from mutant plants, people with animal parts and metal skin and a dozen other odd changes.

It was chaos, children with access to the dev kit of the gods, and I could see why Sven's place was considered such a…niche interest. People traveled from all over Europe to be here, probably because there was such a stigma against 'nonhumans'. The people who weren't obviously altered had a vibe about them, my instincts noticing things like a feral disposition (werewolves) or a Veela's allure.

And in the center of it all, like a king on his throne, Sven Jorgensen sat proudly, arms around a pair of pretty girls, one with blue skin and finlike ears, and one with cat ears and a twitching tail. He watched the proceedings with a feverish intensity, eyes tracking the bodies of the various altered people with feverish intensity.

Sven liked to tout himself as a rebel king, the one true champion of the disenfranchised, and a savior to those who would push the limits of humanity and its form. Judging by his wandering eyes and hands, I was pretty sure the dude was just a massive furry. Guys, girls, possibly the plants, he was pretty clearly vibing most of the stuff in here.

I closed my eyes, trying to…I don't know…pinpoint somewhere I needed to go. I'd gotten background on this place, but nothing specific. I knew there WAS a clue here, and I'd done the research to know who to bring, but I didn't know where it was.

"So…" I said somberly. "Don't let him touch you, I didn't realize he was this big a perv. In fact, you don't need to go near him at all. Pick a group of people who look nice and maybe show off some transfiguration. Fleur, make sure nobody tries to take advantage of Suzie? She can take care of herself but she can be a bit trusting. You know what people can be like."

She smiled softly, letting me know she wasn't bothered playing babysitter. "I do. She will be safe with me. You have my word."

Smiling, I leaned in to peck her on the lips, then turned and headed into the crowd. I didn't know why I needed a distraction, but I knew I did. The girls were here for some reason and I would trust them to do their job while I did mine. I headed deeper into the chateau, passing rooms of random people doing weird shit. I felt a pull, nothing extensive but there was something there, and I followed it.

That was how I ended up at the end of the hallway, standing in front of a door tucked back behind a bookshelf. To my surprise, there was a padlock on it from the outside, one heavily warded with a variety of spells designed to do terrible things to anyone who messed with them. I rolled my eyes, opened a circle directly below the hanging lock, then moved it up until it was level with the latch the lock was looped through, and with a quick effort, cast a cutting curse as I closed the circle.

I couldn't use circles to cut things, unfortunately. As awesome as a space knife sounded, anything reasonably sized would just be pushed out when it closed, in whichever direction was easiest. However, I was fast, and the cut was clean. Somewhere in a random cave, the lock exploded into a million pieces unleashing horrible magic to deform and destroy anyone who messed with it…but I wasn't there, so fuck it.

The damaging enchantments had all been on the lock itself, not on the loop holding it shut so the last little piece of metal was easy to pull off as I slipped inside, ready to defend myself.

Except…I didn't need to. Inside the room, to my shock, was a woman. Well, more of a girl. She was a teenager, much like I'd been not too long ago, eighteen or nineteen with a baby face and a sizable bust…and cow ears.

"Um. Hi." I said awkwardly. She was sitting on her threadbare cot, arms around her knees, staring into space, and when I spoke she yelped and jumped off the blanket, not minding the fact that she was very naked. Now, I was a perv and a deviant, but I wasn't a monster. I stripped off my robes, turning my head as I shoved them toward her. "Who! I'm not going to hurt you. Here, just…cover up."

I felt her take the robes, and when the movement stopped I turned back to see her huddled in the clothing, looking afraid. "What do you want from me?" She asked, in what sounded like perfect english.

"I'm looking for someone, and I think you can help." I said gently. "In return, I think I can help you. How would you like to leave."

Her eyes widened. "No!" She yelped. "Please, he'll kill me. There's nowhere I can hide." Her eyes welled with tears. "I mishandled a Transfiguration as a girl. I was…I was trying to make my breasts bigger. I thought a cow transfiguration might help. And it did..but…I made a mistake and couldn't undo it. People were cruel, but I heard about this place and came here to meet new people. He saw me and decided he wanted to keep me. I had no one to protect me." Her big blue eyes swam with tears, but I decided to let Suzie do the hugging. I didn't want to scare her.

"Well, that's not the case anymore." I said bluntly. "I'm not scared of Jorgensen, and I AM taking you out of here. You can go wherever you want once we leave. Do you want my help?" She stared at me, hope and fear mixing in her eyes, then nodded. I was sure she had information that would help me, after all, I was pretty sure we were speaking German in her head, and chances were good she was related to wherever Grindelwald was hiding. I'd figure it out soon enough. For now, I had a damsel to save. Suzie would be so proud.

January 27th , 2013, Landstadt Wizarding Village, Gstaad, Switzerland, 7:00 AM BST

When I got back outside, I found a relatively tense tableau. Suzie was standing behind Fleur, and Sven and his two pets were looming over them (well, Sven loomed, the pets mostly skulked). "I'm simply inviting you back to my private rooms for a drink and some company." He said with a greasy smile. "You seem like fascinating your wom-" He froze, turning to see Hilda emerging behind me. "You! What are you doing! How did she get out of her room?"

"She's with me now." I said bluntly. "We're leaving. Got a problem?" I didn't like this guy. He was keeping a girl locked up in a room because she had cow ears, and he was leering at my girls. I wasn't going to be polite, and I was more than strong enough to handle myself.

His eyes narrowed. "Boy, I don't know who you think you are but-" I was bored. I opened a circle next to me and shoved my fist through, rabbit punching him in the base of the skull.

He dropped like a rock, eyes rolling up as he collapsed bonelessly to the ground, and I smirked. Talky wizards were the easiest kind to take out. Any competent duellist would have been able to shield in time. I was fast, but not too fast to see, and I didn't move at the speed of thought. Wordless wandless casting could be instantaneous.

Withdrawing my hand from the portal I clenched hard, cracking all the joints in my fist. "Anyone else have an issue?" I let my hand hand threateningly next to the circle in the air and no one moved.

"Fleur, Suzie, this is Hilda. She's with us now. Why don't you take her outside while I say goodbye to our new friends." They nodded, grabbing the wilting blonde cowgirl and heading out the front doors. "Alright, so here's the deal. We're leaving, and if you're smart we'll never see any of you again. If you come after me, or your boss does, well…" I held up a hand and focused, a globe of green flames blazing to life. The flickering shadows within the flames formed a screaming face, struggling to get out, but I held it down.

Everyone tensed, staring at the legendary cursed flame that almost nobody was willing to use. Fiendfyre killed the wielder as often as their targets, and anyone crazy (or skilled) enough to mess with it was someone with whom wise people did not fuck.

Letting the fiedfyre fade, I turned and strolled casually out of the house. "Ladies." I said as I caught up. "I think our shopping trip in Gstaad is going to be a no go. We can try to come back another time. For now lets get Hilda out of here, in case my very clear warning was too subtle for Sven."

Putting a hand on their shoulders, I opened a circle below the four of us, the world slipping away as we appeared halfway across Europe in the blink of an eye.

"How.." Hilda said in awe. "How did you do that? Apparating four people is very difficult, and I didn't even feel sick?" She looked around the manor in awe. "And where are we? It's so beautiful here."

To my surprise, there were people out in the foyer, Tracey and Shaggy were cuddled on the stairs with the door open, watching Scooby play outside, dropping toys through circles and watching him bolt to catch them before they hit the ground.

Tracey looked up when we appeared. "Oh merlin, not another one. Blonde with big tits, how original. Another little sister for the collection, or will you be porking this one?"

I glared at her. "Tracey, this is Hilda. We rescued her from a very bad man who was keeping her locked in a room for…untoward reasons. She is SAFE here and is under no obligation to have sex with anyone for any reason."

She flinched, shooting the girl a sympathetic look. "Oh, shit. My bad. I'm really sorry about that, it was just a joke between friends. Ryan totally isn't like that. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm Tracey, this is Shaggy. The big furry baby outside is Scooby-Doo. Do you want to pet him?"

Scooby bounded inside. "Ryan!" He cried happily. "You're back!"

"I just left like an hour ago Scoob." I laughed. "But yeah, home at last. It's good to see you bud. You having fun with your game of catch?"

"Yeah!" He said excitedly. "It's like Ridditch!" He was getting a lot better at speaking without the R's, but the Qu sound was a bot complex for dog lips still. I turned to Hilda. "This is my new friend Hilda, want to say hi?"

Hilda, being a human being with a heart and eyes, was immediately struck dumb by Scooby's cuteness, and shyly waved to our big boy. "Hello." She said quietly. "My name is Hilda. It's nice to meet you. Can I scratch behind your ears?"

"Yeah!" He said excitedly, bouncing over to her. She knelt down, snuggling and petting him, and I headed over to stand by the others while Suzie and Fleur went to get a room ready.

"Sorry." Tracey said guiltily. "I didn't know."

I shook my head. "I don't think she minded too much. I'm just trying to leave any sexual joking at the door around her. She was naked and locked in a closet when I found her, basically. I don't know for SURE she was abused that way, but based on the guy who had her, it seems likely."

"Scumbag." She snarled. "I hope you killed him."

To my surprise Shaggy didn't seem bothered by the sentiment, his lessons with Tanith must be paying off. "I knocked him the fuck out." I admitted. "But I didn't kill him. The whole place was swarming with people, and I'm not willing to kill innocent non humans who were looking for a place to hang out without being mistreated. I'll let Hilda decide what I do to him. She's the one with the right to see him punished. Hopefully she chooses to exercise it.

After Hilda's had time to snuggle the puppy for a while, I headed over and sat down next to her. "Hi." I said casually. "Having fun?"

"Yes." She said shyly. "He's very sweet. Thank you. For everything. I thought I'd be there forever. He would come and see me every night. I…I don't want to talk about it. But he wasn't very nice."

"You don't have to say a word about it." I said gently. "I wanted to talk to you about something else. I'm looking for someone. A man. I have a gift for divination, and it led me to the chateau and more specifically to you. I think you might know where he is. Have you see this man?" I held up a small portrait. Dumbledore had made it from one of his memories, and it showed a younger Grindelwald, glaring imperiously.

She shook her head. "I don't. I've never seen him before."

I frowned. Of course not. She'd been a captive for a while and he'd just escaped. Still, she had to know SOMETHING. I could feel it. "How about houses?" I asked cautiously. "Are there any homes near you that have been empty for a long time?"

"Oh!" She said excitedly. "Yes. The Warwick Manor down the street has been empty for years. All the kids in the neighborhood are told to stay away from it."

"Really?"" I asked, trying to keep my own excitement from showing. "Do you know who owns it?"

That was EXACTLY the kind of vague bullshit divination would turn up. And if it wasn't the right place, her hometown might still be involved. Even if it turned out to be a dead end, I was glad I'd gone. Knowing someone like Hilda would have been at Sven's mercy would have been horrible.

Smiling at her, I was distracted by the appearance of Gabi and Stori, who were standing over us staring at us. Gabi looked sympathetic, and Stori looked suspicious. I rolled my eyes at my surrogate sister, who stuck her tongue out at me. "Hi there!' She chirped at Hilda, clearly not willing to be bitchy to someone who had just gone through so much, even if she had entirely unwarranted concerns about out apparent closeness (concerns I was sure she was blowing out of proportions in her head). "I'm Astoria, and this is Gabi. I was hoping we could help you pick out some clothes. You look like you have the same body type as me, at least I think so."

Hilda blushed. "I couldn't take your clothes. You've all already done so much for me."

Stori's last bit of suspicion melted under her stuttering cuteness. "I won't hear another word about it." She beamed, pulling Hilda up. "We're happy you're here. Gabi and I get so bored hanging out with just my big brother and his minions. You're closer to our age, so I think we're going to be great friends."

Hilda's eyes widened in tentative excitement, and the two girls dragged her away.

Tracey chuckled from over on the steps once they were gone, Scooby trotting over for ear scritches. "She's a damned force of nature that one. Though someone might want to remind her of boundaries. I wouldn't be surprised if she tries to 'introduce' her to Harry. She's been hinting at Gabi that she thinks he 'needs more love in his life'."

"She wants to give Harry a harem?" I asked with a laugh. "What does her own boyfriend think about that?"

"I think more power to him." Said Blaise as he entered the room. "Devil or not, I think if I get any more sex than I'm currently having I might need hipe replacement surgery. I'm glad I'm not human or STORI might need a harem, because I don't think I could keep up."

I grimaced, covering my ears, and Tracey laughed. "Good for her. I think my man is in a similar boat." She smirked at him. "Or were you angling for a threesome, hun? I've caught you staring at Tanith's tight little bottom a time or two, maybe we should invite her to our alone time." She winked at him, and he went inordinately pale.

"Like, don't even joke about that." He said, looking around frantically. "If Master hears you talking about me staring at her butt, the training increase might kill me. Besides, you know I don't need anyone but you."

"You bet that rock hard ass of yours." She said with satisfaction, leaning up to kiss him hungrily.

I frowned at them. "Tracey, if you fuck on my stairs I'm going to make you polish the hardwood with a fucking toothbrush. These floors are over two hundred years old."

"Bitch, bitch, bitch." She complained. "How's a refined lady of culture supposed to get run up her boyfriends flagpole with all these restrictive rules. Give love a chance, boss. I thought Americans are supposed to be all horny choas and firing guns in the air?"

"Sadly, I left my cowboy hat and my red white and blue ford pickup at my other house." I drawled. "In the meantime, how about you use your ability to fucking TELEPORT and go find a bedroom. Preferably your own, but as long as its not mine I'm not super picky."

Blaise snorted, ignoring her annoyed glare at him. "Anyway, I'm going to get Val. We've got to make a milk run. Possible lead on Grindelwald." They all looked worried, but as they opened their mouths I held up a hand. "Don't worry, it's just recon, but I want to double check before I circle the wagons." That seemed to soothe them for now, and I smirked as I wandered off to find my Queen. My peerage were such worriers, but I didn't mind it. Nice to know they cared.

January 27th , 2013, Heppenheim, Germany, 8:00 AM BST

Rather than just bring Val, I also stopped to pick up Amelie. She was in London, having stayed here during the break before the next task. When we found her, she was in a wizarding pub in Greenwich. She hadn't noticed us as we entered, sitting at a table tossing back shots of firewhiskey, and I'd had to overpay for a sobriety draft from the bartender, but now she was good to go.

We were all standing outside the manor Hilda had mentioned, staring across the street at a series of layered wards of what looked like a still abandoned building.

Amelie's expression had gone from the happy exuberance of partying to a cold seriousness, and I watched with bated breath as she circled, hand skimming over the edges of the ward. I approved of the thoroughness. I'd brought her to check for that exact reason. Hilda was a link in the chain to finding him, but who knew which link. We couldn't get complacent. While the place WAS warded, we couldn't assumed it was actually Grindelwald who lived there.

"Grindelwald lives here." Amelie proclaimed, startling me out of my thoughts.

I blinked. Huh. Ok. "Are you sure?" I asked. "It couldn't be anyone else? Because I'm sure lots of people use similar wards."

"If you want me to go into the details of how he's using a shifting Vecht cypher to navigate the Eschelbraun constant across the planar variant of the leyline axes in the area so the wards can oscillate over the mystical frequency of the plank constant and ground to a net zero magical pollution output to hide his presence, I can do that." She said in a single breath. "Or you can just trust that I know how my teacher builds wards and we can move on."

"Fair enough." I chuckled. "Does that mean you can take them down?"

She just laughed. "I have a better chance of taking them down than you do." She corrected. "Or at least, of taking them down quietly. He built the outer layer first. It keeps the house looking dilapidated, keeps people from wanting to enter, and acts as a ward to prevent sensory magic and divination from finding him directly. Which I imagine is why yours had to take such a circuitous route."

"You can ward against divination?" I said in fascination.

"You can ward against anything." She confirmed. "As long as you know how it works. Divination is a more esoteric form of magic than most can grasp, but Gellert…my mentor is a brilliant man. Divination isn't some mystical esoteric lottery machine. It's a grounded and structured discipline that uses thaumaturgy and symbolic links to derive data sets through altered random number generation. You provide elimination values through subconscious constructs and chaotic data entry to maximize the prospects, but divination can be predicted and defended against."
I sighed. "Alright. So what are the chances we blast our way in and don't die?" I asked in annoyance. I wasn't planning to attack today, but it looked like this might take more than a day or two to crack, and this was just the outer layer. He was still enchanting from what I could tell, and it would get harder as he went.

"Zero." Amelie said bluntly. "He's threaded his ward structures through the folds of the local spatial substrate. If you blow the wards apart they'll tear the whole area to shreds at a dimensional level. Shards of broken space will turn as all to mincemeat and the bloody chunks of our cooling corpses will plummet into the void."

I grimaced. "I'd prefer to avoid any plans that end with the sentence "and the bloody chunks of our cooling corpses will plummet into the void" I said dryly. "Do you happen to have an alternative?"

Val had been prowling around, hands flexing like she was resisting the urge to blow the wards open with Hellfire. But the second she heard that last part, she froze, then stepped very carefully back from the borders of the magical defenses. "Does he know we're here?"

Amelie shook her head. "No. Wards don't work like that. They process data inside the field, not outside. There are observation spells that can do that kind of thing, but they aren't stable formats. It has to do with the shifting variables of the inputs from external visual stimuli. Gellert is far too skilled to bother trying them. This is security through obscurity."

I hadn't realized wizards had that phrase. Actually, it occurred to me that higher level enchanting sounded WAY more scientific than I'd expected. But sufficiently advanced magic, I gues.

"As for an alternative." She continued. "Possibly. He won't be stepping foot outside these wards for quite some time. This is a bunker, built to hole up and wait for the world to forget about him. Filius and I should be able to crack the outer layer, and possibly install a back door concurrently with his construction without his notice. But we'd need to be VERY careful, and wait until he finished to attack. Otherwise he could just blow the wards from inside and kill everyone within a hundred miles."

"No rushing." I said with a wince. "Got it. So he has all the necessary materials already? How did he get them?"

She shrugged. "Chances are decent he had this place set up as a fallback position. He might've stashed the warding materials here on a sealed room or a magically expanded trunk. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a few dozen places like this set up at one point. I'd wager most of them have been found and dismantled already, but clearly this one was still valid. Here, come see." She gestured me forward, and I stepped in. She grabbed my wrist, dragging my hands closer.

"Feel the magic." She said softly. "Listen to the pulse of the leylines. Magic is the breath of the world. The heartbeat of the planet. It pumps through all of reality, through every plane, and you can feel the wash of it. The ebb and flow. It comes a little differently each time, shifting in response to what it flows through. If you map it, read it, you can grasp the magical structure of the underlying planes here."

Closing my eyes, I tried to do as she said. Magic…magic was all around us. I could feel it, as a devil. I had to be able to feel it, because I had to convert my demonic energy into magic. That was the true strength of demonic energy, really. It could be anything. It was a universal adapter. When people said devil magic was the power of imagination that was what they meant. If you could dream it you could do it.

But the inverse was true too. If you could do it you could dream it, and I could do magic. So I felt along the edges of my self. Felt for the places where my demonic power pressed up against the ambient magic. Before I converted it, I could feel the line, that schism where the two powers sparked and snapped against each other.

It was so unlike necromancy, where I had to lose part of myself. Converting demonic power to magic was like breathing. Take in oxygen, let out carbon dioxide, but more intentional than that.

So I just followed the magic, traced along it without actually changing the composition of my power. It was a weird sensation, pushing my perception out of myself like that. Like unfocusing your eyes, but they just kept unfocusing until you were looking at the world from a third person view, then zooming out even further.

I could see the shifting in the power from the wards. Not as anything as stable as letters or symbols, but sort of a coruscating framework made of broken glass. Colors swirled in the distorted shapes like rainbows in an oil slick, creating fractals inside the fractals, a monument made of kaleidoscopic gemstone, a framework of power trapped in the form of the skeleton of some kind of eldritch palace seen through a warped funhouse mirror.

Staggering back, I held my head. Amelie looked startled. "What did you just see?" She asked sharply.

I described it, and she stared at me in shock. "That's magesight." She said in an awed voice. "It takes most enchanters decades of study to find a way to view the magical spectrum like that. Human brains aren't meant to conceptualize such things. Years of rigorous meditation and mental constructs, spells to peel away layers of reality, often complex equipment to allow the viewing of deeper planes. And you just did it by accident while trying to learn to sense leyline emanations."

"Thanks?" I said in confusion. My head hurt. There was probably a reason that people trained for decades to do that, because I had NOT been prepared. I was pretty sure I COULD do it again, and that if I did I would adapt to it better, but I was in too much pain to try.

"Now I know what Filius was talking about." She chuckled. "You really a natural. That skill alone will see you become one of the most talented enchanters in the world if you master it. In muggle terms, it would be like being able to view the source code of a program by looking at it." At my surprised expression, she snickered. "Yes, I've studied muggle science. There are similarities between their programming and enchanting, though less than you might think. Programming is a dull, lifeless thing. Computers are an interesting concept, but they're too static to work well with magic."

I shrugged. "Most wizards seem to consider muggle science bullshit. Dumbledore was amazed by my use of PH balance in Aqua Eructo."

"Enchanters are a different breed." She shrugged. "Magic in general tends to be very emotional. Feeling and beliefs can empower spells, and make it easier to shape them. In many ways, you could consider wizards to be post-logic. Having a firm understanding of what we can and can't do isn't just non beneficial, it's actively harmful. Knowing your limits means never pushing them, which is something wizards should never accept."

That was an interesting way of looking at it. "So you're saying wizards are like Wile E. Coyote? Running off the cliff and not looking down so they never fall?" At her blank look, I explained the concept, apparently she wasn't a muggle expert, just amagic scientist who had looked into a related field.

She laughed when I was done. "Exactly. It's why wizards are so resistant to muggle ideas. Muggles live in a world where they can exert very little direct power on their environment. Because of that, they need to carefully map its specifications so they can master it, or create tools that allow them to do so. This entire mindset is anathema to wizards, for whom their own beliefs always have to be paramount."

I considered the magic users I'd met in the wizarding world. They seemed backwards at times, and kind of shitty, but I could see what she meant. I wondered how much power had been derived from bullshit like bloodlines because someone believed it was there. Powers like Metamorphmagi were inherited, had wizards MANIFESTED those abilities out of the belief that they should be there?

And what relationship did that kind of belief based magic system have with the wizard's lack of a true name. Did we have a closer relationship with magic? Were we really that much more connected? And did I even count in that equation? I'd been a squib before I became a devil, so I WAS a wizard. My natural power had been amplified, and become demonic energy. I was a universal adapter, but did that make me not a wizard anymore? Did I have a true name now? Did I want one? So many questions, and no answers. Maybe I should fix that.

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent