The Arcs of Destiny

Chapter X:

The Book

'Here by my side, an angel.

Here by my side, the Devil.

Never turn your back on me,

Never turn your back on me again.

Here by my side, it's heaven.'

~ Matthew Good, Weapon

*

"Surprise!" Hermione said, smiling at the two boys standing in front of her. They had each grown a little taller since the last time she saw them, and both boys looked at her in astonishment.

Ron quickly gained his voice back and began to gather Hermione's luggage. "Here, let me take these in for you."

"No, no, that's okay," Hermione said. "I'm perfectly fine bringing these in myself, except the door is kinda closed, so I can't really do anything until you open it." She smiled at Ron again and he fumbled for the doorknob, blushing. Finally, gaining all of his composure and the upper hand with the door handle, he held the door open for Hermione as she trooped in with her backpack and her trunk on top of her suitcase. "Where do you want me to put these?"

"Uh," Ron scratched his head. "Do you want to sleep on the couch downstairs or the couch here?"

"I'll stay here," Hermione said and Ron led her into the living room where she dropped her bags by the wall and sat on a chair. Harry had followed them in and sat down on the couch with Ron.

"So...what are you doing here?" Harry asked. "I mean, not that we don't want you here because we do, it's just that you were on vacation in Australia."

"I can cut off my vacation," Hermione said, shrugging nonchalantly. "I just figured you guys needed me to be here instead of in Australia."

"How'd you know?" Ron asked. "Besides from Ginny."

"I had a dream, sort of," Hermione replied. "I figured that you guys needed my help or something because of what I saw. Ginny was crying, so I thought that she wanted my help so I convinced my parents to come here, and they're staying in the hotel in Summerside, by the way."

"Speaking of Ginny," Harry cut in, "where is she? We left Draco and her here, but they don't seem to be here."

"Ginny?!" Ron called out. There was no answer. He leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. "I can't believe this. Four missing people in one day!"

"Missing people?" Hermione asked. She hadn't expected missing people. People in trouble, yes, but missing, no. She turned to Harry when Ron didn't answer. "What is he talking about?"

"We discovered that Mrs. Weasley and Percy are missing a little earlier," Harry told her. "We've just come back from the Town Hall to tell Mr. Weasley about it, but a riot broke out and now we're back here."

"A riot?" Hermione asked. "What was it about?"

"A group of non-wizards wanted to see the Minister," Ron explained. "The Minister for Magic of Canada is visiting here from headquarter offices in Ottawa and these guys wanted to see him."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Hermione asked, getting up out of her seat and stretching her legs. "Let's go."

She went into the entry hall with the boys following. "Go where?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"To the Town Hall," Hermione answered impatiently.

"But my dad doesn't want us there," Ron told her. "We would still be there if we were allowed."

"So?" Hermione said, putting her hands on her hips. Harry looked at Ron and Ron looked at Hermione.

"Well, isn't this new?" Ron asked, shaking his head.

"Hermione Granger, breaking the rules," Harry said, laughing.

"Like I've said before, I think we've had a bad influence on her," Ron said, grinning. It was Hermione's turn to shake her head.

"Boys," she muttered under her breath as the threesome trooped out the door and into the cool night air.

*****

The room was awfully large. It had pillars all along one wall and windows all along the other. A throne stood at one end of the room, upon which there was a man robed in black with the hood drawn over his face. A door stood at the other end of the room opposite of him.

"Bring them in," he said suddenly to a guard behind him on his right. The guard went forward and opened the door, spilling in three robed demons who were holding a young, blonde-haired boy: Draco Malfoy. "You brought me a present?"

"Yes, Master, we have," one of the demons said. They moved forward and lay Draco on top of a drawing on the floor. "We found him and another in the labyrinth. The boy fell easily into our trap, but the girl got away as a result of his last show of courage. He told the girl to run, which of course she did. We finally found her near the entrance to the labyrinth, but she hadn't figured that out yet so she was easy prey. We have the girl now in a holding cell and we brought him to you for instruction."

A few heartbeats passed before the Master announced, "Turn him. Make sure he is fully demon before you bring her to him. If I am right, the pair should have some affections towards each other which we can exploit."

At this point, a slender woman wearing a fitting black dress with a plunging v-neck and sporting blonde hair, stepped out of the shadows. "The girl is the daughter of a Ministry official from Britain. The boy is the son of a prominent Death Eater to the Dark Lord Voldemort."

"Thank you, Galan," the Master said to the woman. "This new information means that we can go ahead ealier than planned. Am I correct to assuming that the Minster for Canada will be in Mellowside this evening on a two-day visit?"

"Yes, you are, my liege," Galan said.

"I thought so," the Master continued. He got up from his throne and walked over to where the boy lay. "My friend, you will prove very useful to me as a demon." Draco didn't stir. "When your girlfriend sees the true nature of the demon, she'll be forced to send visions to her friends and tell us everything she knows about the Ministry. The more Ministry officials who know about her visions and come looking for her, the more we can trap them for information on the Ministry and corrupt it. Then, you can kill them," he told the boy laying on the floor. "She'll never forgive you, especially when you kill her too. Breaking hearts is my specialty." He straightened and turned to the three demons who were standing around him. "Send out the team. They know what to do, so no questions. I want fire to rage through the streets of Mellowside. Once I leave, turn the boy. I've always loved fireworks."

The Master turned on his heel and vanished in a wreath of fire. The three demons left the room as well to send out the team and Galan gestured to the five priests who had just appeared in the shadows.

"Turn him," Galan told them. "When he wakes up, he'll be a demon like us."

A pentagram was drawn on the floor in blood and Draco lay in the middle of it. Five Dark priests stood outside the pentagram, each stationed at a point in the star. They were all chanting in Latin, dressed in red robes, and hands raised up to the sky. A sudden bolt of lightning flew down into the middle of the pentagram, striking Draco, and as it retreated, his body jumped a foot off the ground, though he did not wake up.

The head priest walked from his position at the top of the star over to Galan. "Done," he told her in a thick accent, and he disappeared in a funnel of black smoke. The other priests disappeared that way as well. Galan smirked and walked slowly to the pentagram, looking down at the boy inside.

"Have fun," she said and walked towards the door. Galan disappeared into thin air with a whistle. The two guards still standing by the throne went over to the pentagram and picked up the boy.

***

Draco bolted upright from his place on the pillows on his bed. He coughed as he suddenly felt like something was constricting his throat, making it tighter and harder to breathe. When this passed, he also realized that he wasn't the only one in the room. A small little girl with curly blonde hair and wearing a red silk dress was sitting on the edge of his bed. To Draco, she looked like a small angel that belonged to heaven, not to hell. She also looked very familiar to Draco, looking like someone he knew, but it wasn't possible for him to see her again.

She smiled when he looked at her and held out her hand, not to him, but to the bedside table. A champagne flute floated from the table and onto the palm of her hand. She picked up the flute and held it out to Draco, who looked at it warily.

"You must drink this, Mister Draco," she said, giggling. Draco took the flute and looked at the brown liquid inside. He frowned and smelled it. There was no smell that he could sense, so he placed the flute to his lips and took a sip.

"Ugh," Draco said, shivering as he digested the potion. "This tastes like ass-" off the girl's look, "-phalt."

The little girl giggled some more as Draco looked at his glass, a purely disgusted look on his face. "Drink the rest of it, Mister Draco," she said.

Draco obeyed and drank the rest of the potion in one gulp in an effort to get rid of it faster. He shivered as the potion spread through his veins, surprisingly warming him up. "What the hell is this stuff?" he gasped, but the tlittle girl was gone. This left him alone in the room, still holding the flute in his hands. He didn't know it as he held that glass, but he had just started sealing his conversion.

****

"Yes me," the woman said.

"Who the hell are you?" Ginny asked.

When the woman didn't answer, Jason spoke. "She's Galan, the Master's main Seer." Galan turned to him as he spoke and when he finished, silvery blue threads of light flew out of her hands and into the cell next to Ginny's. Ginny heard a gasp and a thud. She gasped herself.

"What happened?" Ginny called to Jason. "What did she do to you?"

Right when she finished her sentence, the same silvery blue threads flew out of Galan's hands towards Ginny. Ginny felt her body suddenly twist and writhe, her heart beating painfully against her ribcage. Her heart skipped a few beats and she screamed out in pain. Then, the roaring in her ears suddenly stopped and she crumpled to the ground, her heart regulating itself again. She felt blood drip from her mouth and gulped it back down. She hardly heard Galan's next words, but she could guess what they were.

"How's this for an answer? That was my own brand of electric shock," Galan said happily. "Shocking, isn't it?"

"Bitch," Ginny heard Jason say from the next cell. She looked up at Galan. She seemed unfazed by what Jason had just said and looked as if she had received a triple chocolate birthday cake.

"I have been sent to tell you, Ginny Weasley," Galan began, "that you will be able to see Draco Malfoy."

Ginny's ears pricked up, expecting Galan to say more. However, she didn't continue. She vanished with a whistling sound leaving Ginny and Jason alone.

"We have to get out of here," Ginny said, picking up on her train of thought before Galan had interrupted. "Something bad is going to happen to Draco, I just know it."

"It's already happened," Jason said quietly. "The Master has already converted him to a demon. I'm sorry, but that's the truth."

"No, no," Ginny said, panicking. "Draco couldn't be a demon. He could never become a demon."

"Ginny, it's the truth," Jason said firmly. There was a pause. "Are you a Seer?"

Ginny paused herself before continuing. "I think so," she finally answered. "What does that have to do with Draco being a demon?"

"They want to bring you to him when he's fully converted so that he'll scare you into sending visions to your friends and parents," Jason told her. "They'll come here after getting your visions and the Master will use them to get more information about the Ministry before killing them. You can't allow that to happen, Ginny. This is exactly what they're planning and you're going to play right into their hands if you do send out visions to your family."

"Draco is not--" Ginny began, but Jason cut her off harshly.

"Yes, he is, Ginny," Jason said, "and so am I. You're still talking to me right? So, why should Draco be any different?"

Ginny gave that some thought. She certainly hadn't expected a demon to be so nice to her and good like Jason was.

"I want you to promise me something," Jason continued after taking Ginny's silence that she might actually do this. "The conversion doesn't take a long time. In fact, it only takes a few potions to completely seal it, which Draco will take one every hour. This means that Galan will bring you to him in a few hours. When you see him, he's going to be pretty cruel to you but that's only because of the influence of the potions. If you somehow get back to him and win him over to our side, then we should be able to stop the Master from taking over the Wizarding World. Can you do that for me? Can you promise me that you'll fight your way back to Draco so we'll have a better chance at surviving?"

Ginny got up and closed her hands around the solid iron bars. She took a deep breath before saying, "I promise."

"Okay, good," Jason said happily. "Now here's what you're gonna do..."

****

When Harry, Hermione, and Ron arrived at the Town Hall, they found the bottom floor engulfed in total chaos. Worried witches and wizards milled about as a ring of hooded figures stood in the middle of the room, a fire at their feet. The front desk and chair were engulfed in flames and the butterflies that Ron and Harry had seen here earlier were hiding in a corner of the room.

"Um, can we go now?" Ron asked, his voice pitching slightly higher than usual, but Harry and Hermione weren't paying attention to him, for one of the hooded figures had just snatched up a witch and was dangling her over the fire, ready to drop her in. The witch screamed blue murder and a mass of wizards ran forward to attack the hooded figures holding the woman, but some unseen magic blasted them backwards. The figures all laughed as the witch was thrown back into the crowd.

"Silence!" someone suddenly yelled above the din. All eyes turned to an elderly man standing at the entrance to the unseen staircase. He was tall and thin with greying brown hair and a Muggle suit. He looked very anxious.

One of the hooded figures stepped forward towards the man and said, "Come with us and there will be no casualties. Don't come with us, and the whole town will die." He held out his hand to the man and the man looked at it, deciding whether it would bite him. Finally, he took the proffered hand and all the hooded figures and the man disappeared into thin air. Then, wizards rushed forward to put out the fire.

"Ooh, why did he go with them?" Hermione asked angrily, stamping her foot. "We've got to find them to see what they want."

"Are you sure that's such a great idea considering how the mean-people-who-aren't-Death-Eaters could ward off wizards more effectively than wizards can attack them?" Ron asked skeptically.

"The mean-people-who-aren't-Death-Eaters are demons, Ron," Hermione said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Demons?" Harry asked.

Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "What else could they possibly be except for Death Eaters? Not a whole lot of beings in this world yield great magic like that and go around wearing long, black cloaks. Unless they were evil witches outside the Wizarding World." Ron and Harry looked at her meaningfully. "I'll tell you about that later. But we have to find the demons. They must live somewhere, serve someone. If we followed them, then we could find out the answers."

"If they're demons, then I don't think we'll be able to track them using any wizarding method," Harry said. "We're going to have to use the Arcs of the Unknown for this."

"Right, let's go," Ron said and the threesome ran all the way back to Paradise Manor where Harry found the book sitting on the kitchen table.

"That's odd," Harry said, fingering the cover of the book. "I'm sure that this wasn't here before we left."

"Harry!" Hermione said exasperatedly for a reason that even she didn't know of. Suddenly, the cover of the book blew open and the pages began to flip by themselves before stopping on a page near the end of the book.

"'Tracking Spell'," Harry read aloud. "It's odd how this book always seems to have what we want, isn't it?" Hermione nodded at him wordlessly while Ron simply looked blank.

The earth beneath them shifted suddenly and Harry nearly fell into Ron. The world steadied itself before lurching again. Harry fell to his knees and covered his head as dishes came clattering out of the cupboards and fell on the floor next to him. Another lurch sent all the vases tumbling to the floor along with a cabinet and Harry could hear things falling on the floor upstairs. Then, everything became eeriely quiet. He looked around the room and saw that Ron and Hermione were underneath the table, Ron clutching Hermione for dear life. Pieces of dishes and splintered wood littered the floor around the room.

"Earthquake," Hermione said, disentangling Ron from her arms and getting up from underneath the table. "But we're too far inland for bad earthquakes like that."

"I doubt that that was an earthquake," Harry said, standing up and picking up the Arcs off the table where it had remained, almost as if it was glued down. "That was something else."

Ron got up from underneath the table as well, albeit shakily, and scratched his head. "An incredibly large Giant?" he asked. His eyes grew wide suddenly. "The Town Hall! Do you think the demons did something to the Town Hall?"

"They must've," Harry replied. "I have a hard time believing that those demons would leave the Hall without a big bang."

"Should we go see what happened?" Hermione asked.

"We could get killed," Ron said then, picking up his case eagerly. "Those demons could attack again and we might be in the crossfire the next time."

"I doubt it," Harry said. "Probably enough damage was done already that they won't need to do more. We'll bring the book." Off both his friends' glances, he added, "Just in case."

Now they ran all the way back to the Town Hall, or what was left of Town Hall. As they approached, Harry could see dense clouds of smoke billowing out of the windows on the top floor. Flames were licking the edges of the damaged roof and crowds of witches and wizards were standing outside, helping to gather those who needed help. Medi-wizards ran through the crowds with their bags and tended to any wizard who needed help.

"Oh no," Hermione said as they made their way through the crowds to the barriers that were set up around the building. From there, they could see flames licking the windows of the bottom floor.

Harry looked around the crowd for Arthur Weasley. He spotted him quickly and pointed him out to Hermione and Ron. They made their way through the crowd to where Arthur was standing at the barrier talking to a couple of other wizards. Arthur quickly finished talking to them when he spotted the threesome.

"What are you three doing here? I thought I told you three to stay at home!" Arthur said, eyes sliding over Hermione. When he finally realized who she was, he chuckled. "Oh Hermione! Didn't know you were here."

"It's okay, Mr. Weasley," Hermione said, smiling. "I just flew to Canada on a hunch. My family is staying in Summerside."

"What happened here, Dad?" Ron asked.

"A piece of rock fell from the sky and exploded inside the Town Hall," Arthur replied. "Luckily, I was on my way home when it hit. Unfortunately, others weren't as lucky as I was. I'm just glad you three weren't here when it happened."

"Yeah, we were at home by then--" Ron started, but stopped when he remembered that they weren't supposed to be there when the riot took place. Arthur would know that it doesn't take that long to go from Paradise Manor to the Town Hall and would have figured out that they had been there once since Arthur had shooed Harry and Ron away. Fortunately, he had turned his attention to another wizard. "Me and my big mouth."

"What do you want to do now?" Harry asked Hermione who was biting her lip thoughtfully.

"Ginny and Draco may lead us to the demons," Hermione said, "and so might Percy and Mrs. Weasley. If we put a Tracking Spell on them, then maybe we will be able to find out what happened to them and find out who those demon guys are at the same time."

"Good idea," Harry said. "We should go in chronological order too. That way we can uncover more information."

Hermione nodded and they fought their way out of the crowd, Ron following feebly behind. They went to an area where no one could see them and opened the book.

"We're going to need a map, a crystal, and--" Harry broke off, reading the list of materials needed. "We need a lot of things actually."

"Better that we do this at my house," Ron said and he started for Paradise Manor, the others following him. "That way we can get our materials together faster."

They walked back to Paradise Manor in silence and went into the still silent house. It was only when it began to rain that Hermione finally spoke. "Do you think we'll be able to track them through this rain?"

Harry nodded and looked at Ron. "Do you have something of Percy's that we can use for the spell?"

"I'll go check," Ron answered, "but I'll probably have to steal something of his. He rarely lends his things to us." Ron ran up the stairs to the top floor. The rain began to pour down harder and the sound filled the house.

Harry put the open book on the coffee table and told Hermione, "Get out your cauldron, some mercury, a crystal on a string and a candle."

Hermione nodded and opened her trunk for these things. Ron bounded down the stairs then with a quill in hand. "Here's a quill of Percy's. It even has his name on it."

"Don't you think that Percy would want it back, without the stains of a potion on it?" Harry asked, taking the quill into his hands.

"Oh no, he has tons of them with his name on it," Ron answered. "He's certainly not going to miss this one."

Hermione carefully set her cauldron on the coffee table next to the Arcs and put a burner underneath it. Harry measured a cup of mercury into the cauldron and let it boil. Ron lit the candle Hermione gave him and put it on the table next to the cauldron. Harry stood over it, watching the cauldron.

"Is it boiling?" Hermione asked, coming to stand beside Ron who was beside Harry. They all peered into the cauldron together. The liquid had turned from silver to white and bubbles were forming in it.

Harry nodded. "I think so," he replied and grabbed the crystal. It was short and triangular with a thin string attached to the base. He dropped the crystal into the cauldron with a splash and hung the string over the rim, attaching it to a hook on the side of the cauldron to keep it from falling in.

"You know, I wonder what Snape would say if he saw this," Ron said. "Normally we hate Potions calss, but this is actually kind of fun."

"I think Snape would drop dead at the sound of you saying that," Hermione said with a giggle. "I think everyone would."

Ron snorted and looked at the spell again. He then took Percy's quill and put it into the flame of the candle. It quickly caught fire and he dumped it into the cauldron.

"You probably like this because you get to destroy your brother's things while in the process of trying to find him," Harry said, biting back a laugh. "You have a reason to do this and he can't do anything about it."

Ron grinned while Harry grabbed the candle and carried it over to the cauldron, carefully trying to keep the melted wax from dripping over the edge. He poured the wax around the fluid inside the cauldron and it emitted a loud popping noise. Sparks flew and smoke rose up out of the cauldron making the three jump.

Harry waved the smoke away from his face and said jokingly, "Ain't magic grand?"

"Got a map, Ron?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, we should," Ron said, going into the kitchen to look through a drawer. He rifled through some papers and came back to the others with a map. He put the map on the floor and Harry and Hermione gathered around him. The map showed the entire town plus the forests that surrounded it. Harry took the crystal out of the cauldron and began to scry, swinging the crystal in a circular motion over the map. He moved the crystal into different areas of the map and listened to his friends talk.

"What will we do when we find him?" Ron asked.

"I think the more important question is: how are we going to get to him?" Hermione asked, folding her arms. She looked at Ron.

"Don't look at me," Ron said defensively. "I can't Apparate."

"Look in the Arcs for a simple teleportation spell, Herm," Harry said, not looking up from the map. He brought the crystal over the forests since he had no luck in finding Percy in the village. Hermione obeyed and flipped to the back of the book.

Ron sat on the couch and said, "That book has like everything in it."

"And I think I know why," Hermione said, so low that Harry barely heard her. Then, she said louder, "Uh, guys, I think you better take a look at this."

Eyebrows raised, Harry reluctantly dropped the crystal on the map and went to stand next to Hermione. Ron had already joined her and was looking over her shoulder at the book. Harry looked at the page that Hermione was staring at as well and saw that it was blank except for a thin blue script that was appearing at the top of the page. The title read, "Teleportation."

Harry looked at the book in horror. The last time he had encountered a book that revealed writing like that was in his second year when he had discovered Tom Riddle's diary. The diary had turned out to be evil, and while Harry did know that the Arcs was a Dark book, he didn't trust it anymore even though it had helped him a lot lately.

"Freaky," Ron whispered, staring at the book in awe. "It's like it hears what we want and prints out whatever we need by adding more pages to itself."

"Yes, it is fairly magical," said a voice in front of them. Harry looked up to see a young girl with long, blonde hair stand in front of the window, transparent like a ghost. Beside Harry, Hermione gasped.

"You!" Hermione said, pointing a finger at the girl. "You are the girl that the demon guy killed in the alley and I got your powers. I mean, you were the girl."

The girl nodded. "I am Eve and I was a slayer before my powers passed on to you. Now, I am just a messenger for the Powers That Be and I have been sent here to explain about the book that lays in your hands. As you know, it is called the Arcs of the Unknown. This particular volume was passed down through generations of witches until the Bonner Fire of 1882. From there, it was passed around through different occult shops and owners until it came to the shop that Harry went to. It picks its owners, you see. You, Harry Potter, and your friend Draco Malfoy are the official owners of this book, and any of your friends can use it as well, but it has its own protection against those who have evil intent at heart."

"But I thought the book was Dark," Harry said. "What's the use of guarding against evil if it has Dark spells in its pages?"

"Well, the owner can be good or evil," Eve explained. "You are good so it guards against evil. If you were evil, then it would guard against good." She suddenly looked up towards the ceiling. "I am being summoned. Please, do not be afraid of the book. It lives to serve only you." She disappeared in a halo of lights.

"Well?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry. "The Teleportation Spell is finished. Are we still gonna use the Arcs?"

Harry looked down at the book. After careful consideration, he nodded. Then, he kneeled down next to the map and picked up the crystal. He started to swing it around and rasied his eyebrows when it stopped in mid-swing. The tip of the crystal was pointing over a point deep in the forest on the eastern side of the lake. He didn't know it, but that was the building Ginny and Draco were in.