The Arcs of Destiny

Chapter XII:

Demons³

'Slowly drifting into a peaceful breeze,

Tongue tied and twisted are all my memories,

Celebrating a fantasy come true,

Packing all my bags, finally on the move.'

~ Christina Aguilera, Cruz

*

After teleporting back to Paradise Manor, Ron and Hermione showed Percy to his room while Harry performed the ritual of scrying for Molly Weasley all over again. Following the same pattern as before, he dipped a necklace of Molly's into the candle's flame and dropped it into the cauldron. Then he dripped the candle's wax around the liquid and the potion exploded. He then took the crystal and went over to the map on the floor where he began to scry. By then, Ron and Hermione had come back downstairs and were fighting over something that Harry only partially listened to since it was clear they didn't know he was there.

"...she needs to be found first," Hermione was saying. "She may have more information than Percy or your mother do."

"How can you say that?" Ron asked. Harry moved the crystal to another section of the map. He drowned out the next part of the conversation when the crystal began to pull towards another area and he moved his hand to where it wanted him to go. The crystal suddenly dropped on a clearing a centimetre from where Percy's crystal had dropped. Harry furrowed his brow and straightened. Then, he tuned back into the conversation around him and slowly stood up, but they took no notice.

"She's my mother, Hermione!" Ron exclaimed. "And she's been gone way longer than Ginny has."

"Yes, I know," Hermione hissed. "But we don't know what happened to her. Her memory could be wiped like Percy's and that's why we should get to Ginny first."

"When was it that you stopped caring about family?" Ron yelled. "Ginny will be alright, as long as she stays with Malfoy. These demons are a lot worse than he'll ever be and I hate to be the first to admit that. My mother has been missing since yesterday morning and who knows what might have happened to her which is why we need to get to her first!"

"But it is more practical to go to Ginny first," Hermione began, trying to keep her temper at bay. She was going to say something more but Harry decided to cut in then.

"Will you two stop fighting?" he asked, putting his hands in his jean pockets. The pair in front of him jumped at his sudden interruption and the room became eerily silent. Both Hermione and Ron were flushed with anger and out of breath.

"How long have you been there?" Ron asked quietly.

"Since before you guys came downstairs," Harry answered. "I've already scryed for Mrs. Weasley and found her, so we have no choice but to go to her. Do you have Percy's mercury charm?" Hermione nodded weakly, not looking at Ron. "Okay, so we go. Is that clear?"

The pair in front of him nodded and got out their pieces of paper with the Teleportation spell. Everyone said the spell as one and soon they were whisked away to where the crystal landed.

*****

"We're going where?" Severus Snape asked, clearly shocked. He sat on one side of a long table beside Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin, the latter having been re-hired as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. These three professors were part of the special Order of the Phoenix, an organization built outside of the Ministry of Magic and against the Dark Lord Voldemort. Around him sat many other wizards that belonged to the secret organization, but many chairs were vacant, mainly Sirius Black and Arthur Weasley. Some of these missing agents were off in some foreign country discovering news about Voldemort's plans. The founder of the organization and appointed leader was Albus Dumbledore, who was sitting at the head of the table and was now looking at Snape with mild amusement.

"Mellowside, Ontario," Dumbledore repeated.

"What?" Snape asked incredulously.

"Well, you don't have to put it like that," Dumbledore said, frowning.

"Sorry," Snape said. He then asked again, "What?" This caused a few of the younger women to giggle and he glanced at them in a state of more shock. Those three witches from Germany had some kind of a crush on him.

Dumbledore chose to ignore this. "We must get to Mellowside immediately. From what Sirius has said, the Wizarding World in Canada is in jeopardy and so are the students that we have there vacationing. The Weasleys, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, and I believe even Hermione Granger and her parents are in Canada, all in Mellowside."

"But Professor," McGonagall began, "what will we do when we get there? This new evil is beyond the Wizarding World's magic. What if we can't stop him?"

"We will do what we can, Minerva," Dumbledore told her. "But the immediate action would be to get there." He sighed and stood up. "I have no further announcements. I would like a few of you to stay here at Hogwarts to keep an eye on Voldemort and our spies while the rest of us leave for Mellowside. I wish for those leaving with me to pack their bags as quickly as possible. Meeting is adjourned."

The sounds of scraping chairs and shuffling papers filled the Prefect meeting room as various wizards and witches began to filter out.

*****

They were teleported to a bedroom this time. Ron looked around. It was a small room, heavily decorated in rich colours such as burgundy and black. There were bookshelves lining the walls and a sofa with matching chairs that were scattered about the room and there was a large four-poster bed by the window, its drapes an evergreen. The curtains were half-open and revealed a figure on the bed.

"Mom?" Ron called. The figure on the bed stirred and the curtains were pushed back further. Ron's guess had been right. The woman was Molly Weasley, but she was different.

Molly jumped off the bed and circled the threesome once before stopping in front of Ron and putting her hand on his face. "You're my son, aren't you?" she asked. Ron nodded weakly and realized that Molly's fingernails were digging into his skin. "Yes, you are. You have my hair." She let go and walked back to her bed, sitting down crosslegged.

"Mrs. Weasley-" Hermione began.

"Silence," Molly said softly, looking down at the floor, pouting. She looked like she was young again. "Let the boy talk."

Hermione looked at Ron and he shrugged. Then he said, "What happened to you?"

"I was turned," Molly answered, busying herself with smoothing the curtains. "I thought you would be too."

"Well, I've only been here twice," Ron told her. "I think we found Percy here, in this building. Right, Harry?" Harry nodded.

"I think they caught me after I..." Molly said, staring off into space for the answer. "I honestly don't remember. I have been having trouble with remembering those things lately."

"Why?" Ron asked, moving closer to her.

Molly looked at him suspiciously before turning back to the curtain. "I think it has something to do with the potions. My care-keeper said that soon my memories of my past will be stripped away and since they have stopped bringing potions, I assume it has something to do with that. Odd, the transformation is. Those potions tasted disgusting."

She stopped talking and glided over to a bookshelf. Ron looked at Harry, still trying to avoid Hermione's eyes. "What do we do?" he asked.

Harry looked nervously at Hermione before answering. "We should get her back to your house. If she's going to forget her past, then it might be best that we bring her to a place where she can remember it again."

"Harry's right," Hermione said. "We gotta get her out of here. I think they might've turned her into a demon."

"Hermione, I didn't ask you," Ron hissed, not wanting to believe Hermione.

"Well, I jumped in anyways," Hermione said defensively. "She talks about transformation and since demons were after Percy, then they must have turned her into one."

"Wait a minute," Harry said, scratching his head. "If demons forget what their past lives were as humans in one of the stages of becoming a demon and Percy didn't recognize you Ron, then he must be a demon too because he was gone longer than Molly was."

"This is just great," Ron moaned. "Next, I'm gonna find out that my sister's a demon and You-Know-Who wears a pink tutu."

Hermione started to look through her pockets. When she found what she was looking for, she brought it out. It was the charm Percy used to teleport. "Ron, give this to your mother," she said, giving it to him. "We're going back to Paradise Manor."

Ron nodded and went over to his mother. "Mum, we're going to take you home," he told her. She wasn't looking at him but at the books on the shelf. "Is that okay with you?"

Now he had caught her attention. She looked at him nervously and nodded. Ron clipped the charm onto a necklace that hung around her neck and he brought her over to where Hermione and Harry were standing. Sharing his spell with his mother, they all read aloud the spell at once and the funnel appeared around them. Half a second later, they were back in the living room of Paradise Manor. Ron gave his mother a cup of coffee and led her to the kitchen table where she sat, watching the teenagers make the potion for scrying all over again.

After a search of Ginny's room, Ron brought back another quill and dipped it into the candle's flame. Then, he dropped it into the cauldron and let Harry do the rest. Harry dripped the melted candle wax on the liquid in the cauldron and it exploded. Everyone jumped and Harry pulled the crystal out of the potion. He went over to the map and began to scry.

"Why don't you scry in the same area that we found Percy and Mrs. Weasley in?" Hermione suggested, bending down.

"You think they could be in the same building?" Harry asked, not looking up from the map. The sun had already risen and was slowly moving up the sky.

"They could be," Hermione replied. "I mean, it could be just a coincidence that Percy and Mrs. Weasley were in the same building, but it might be faster to try it."

Harry nodded and moved the crystal to the spot where it had fallen for Percy and Molly. Ron saw his brow furrow and the crystal suddenly stopped on an area close to where Molly had been.

"Got her," Harry said, standing up. "You were right, Herm. They're all in the same place. I bet you we can find Draco with Ginny."

"Shouldn't you clean up this mess?" Molly suddenly asked from the kitchen table. She gestured to the broken dishes and cabinet on the floor.

"How could we forget about this stuff?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"We were busy," Ron said.

Hermione looked around and then pointed to the window. "It stopped raining."

"We even didn't notice that," Ron said, grinning.

"It stopped raining a couple of hours ago," Harry said, looking at Hermione and Ron strangely. "I would've thought you guys would notice that."

Hermione shrugged while Ron scratched his head thoughtfully.

****

Morning sunlight drifted in through the open window and illuminated the room. Ginny was asleep on a chair by the bed, her hair falling over the arm of the chair and a book open on her lap. Draco was sitting on the bed close to her, reading some of the books from the shelves, and would look at Ginny every five minutes to make sure she was still there and unharmed. He had been browsing through the spells section of the bookshelves and had found some pretty interesting spells. He was about to turn the page when Harry, Hermione, and Ron suddenly appeared beside the bed and he jumped.

"Good god," Draco whispered angrily, not wanting to wake Ginny. "Can't you knock first before you pop in on people like that?"

"Har har," Ron said. He caught sight of Ginny and ran over to her. "Ginny!"

"Don't wake her!" Draco hissed.

"Okay, okay," Ron whispered, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"Is she a demon?" Harry asked in a low voice.

Draco's eyebrows shot up and he said defensively, "No, I am." At their confused looks, he continued. "We were both caught but they decided to change me and not her and kept her locked up in a cell somewhere in the building."

"And you let her out?" Hermione asked.

"No again, she did it herself," Draco answered. "Why are you guys here anyways?"

"We're trying to save you guys," Hermione replied. "We've already found Percy and Mrs. Weasley. Now, we're coming for you."

"Sorry, but they don't need saving," said a voice from the door. He was robed in black and a hood covered his face. "Welcome to my little humble abode. I have been expecting you, especially the son of the Wizarding World: Harry Potter."

The man jumped forward so suddenly that no one had any time to react and grabbed Harry. Finally, Draco grabbed a knife from a drawer in his side table and threw it at the man, careful to not hit Harry. It plunged into the man's side and he took it out while his other arm was around Harry's neck. He threw the knife at Hermione who caught it in midair. Then, the man and Harry disappeared together in a wreath of fire.

"Uh-oh," Hermione said.

****

"Where are we?" Harry asked. After the man had brought him to a cave, he had pushed him into a cage and disappeared. Now, the man was back. His hood was down, revealing brown hair, tanned skin with a long jagged rip from his skull to his chin on the left side of his face, and black eyes. Harry stood up in his cage and closed his hands around the bars.

"Well, I know where you are," the man said, smiling evilly. "You're locked in a cage. But, together, we are obviously in some kind of a cave."

"That was obvious," Harry muttered. Fortunately for him, the man did not hear it or pretended not to hear it.

The man continued. "This cave is part of a vast network of underground tunnels and chambers that serve as my home. It spans the globe in most areas, yet mine and Lexus' demons have to travel a continent to get around the Wizarding World which is awfully a pity. I was hoping that that Dark Lord of yours would share his network, but he hasn't. He wants to keep his network to himself because he doesn't trust us. What's that guy's name? Voldemeanor?"

"Voldemort," Harry said quietly. This guy was probably hard to kill since he was a demon. Would Harry be able to kill him to save his own life? He hoped so, because if not then he was going to have to find a way to escape. "Look, what does this have to do with me?"

"Well, you're going to be my bargaining chip," the man said. "Voldemorty wants to take over the Wizarding World, but to do that, he needs to kill you. And as a sign of good will towards Voldemorty, I give him you, he gives me access to his tunnels, we all get what we want and get on with our lives. It's all been part of my master plan ever since you and that Draco Malfoy boy set foot on this soil."

While the man was speaking, Harry looked about the room. It was empty, save for the two of them. No guards, but there could be barrier charms around the room. He could probably get out of this cage, but the charms would stop him from moving any farther. When the man finished speaking, he asked, "Who are you?" just to stall for time.

"I am the Master," the man said, raising his hands, palms-up. "And this is my part of the Underworld. Of course, we're not in my 'evil lair', as so many movies like to call it. Those things are just so cliché."

"Go on," Harry said nervously.

"Well, what can I say about myself?" the Master said, grinning. Harry suddenly realized that the man before him had no teeth. He frowned as the Master spoke again. "I am very popular in the Underworld, though I'm surprised that you don't know that much about me. Well, I guess it's because you types have no regard for anything outside your world. You care nothing about the troubles of others. Those damn slayers have evaded many apocalypses, but I didn't see any of your names on the guest list. That's the problem with your kind. You're so self-centered. It's rather distracting."

Harry arched his eyebrows. This was certainly not what he had expected. He'd expected more evil talk, but instead, this just made the Master more...uh, mellow?

****

"Uh-oh," a female voice said. Ginny furrowed her eyebrows. It sounded like someone she knew.

"This can't be good," a male voice said. She recognized that voice also.

"Like the guy said, we didn't really need saving," said another male voice. Draco! "We could've gotten out ourselves. Just give us some time, and we wouldn't have sacrificed Harry to a demon!"

"What happened to the 'don't-wake-Ginny' policy?" the first male asked. That had to be Ron. Ginny stirred and groaned. She had a bad feeling that something bad had just happened, and even though sleep was nice, perhaps she knew she should wake up now.

"What happened?" Ginny asked. Opening her eyes, she found that her guesses had been right. Ron and Draco were around the bed area, while Hermione was sitting on the arm of Ginny's chair that her hair wasn't occupying. "Something bad happened, didn't it?" she asked, seeing the expressions on her friends' faces.

When no one answered, Ron took a happy outlook. "Nice to see ya, sis! Nice to see that you're not a demon, like some people in this room."

"Ron, Draco wasn't the only one to be turned, remember?" Hermione scolded.

Ron threw his hands up in the air, giving Hermione a hurt look. Ginny looked at Draco. His expression was sombre.

"I don't get this," Draco said suddenly, when a tense silence had fell on the group.

"Tell me about it," Ron said."We don't even know what is going on, and Hermione is the smart one."

"Hullo?!" Ginny said, waving her hands. "Remember me people? The one who still doesn't know what just happened here?" Hermione grinned and explained. "Thank you, Hermione," Ginny said when she was finished, giving her a smile.

"I still don't get this," Draco repeated. He raised his eyebrows at Ginny. "You're the one who got out of her jail-cell alone. Maybe you know something we don't?"

She shrugged back at him, earning a questioning look from her brother and Hermione, but she ignored them for the time being and went to thinking. The other three waited for her to think patiently before she began. "Jason said that if I believed that Draco was truly evil, I would have sent visions to you guys and then you would've come and the Master would've taken you in for questioning. He said that the Master wanted information from you about the Ministry of Magic."

"Yeah, well, we came anyways," Ron said, sitting at the foot of the bed dejectedly, "and look where it got us. And, Gin, you know this guy? And, who is Jason?" His expression became suspicious. "Is he the Master guy?"

Ginny ignored his questions to ask a question. "And now you guys are here, but the Master only took Harry, right?"

Draco nodded. "The man said he had been waiting for these three, especially Harry. I'm thinking that his plan is not to corrupt the Ministry, like he wants us to think. It's something deeper."

"Why do I get the feeling that this...demon guy is going to kill Harry?" Hermione asked, frustrated.

"Wait," Draco said. "What does the Master really want? I mean, really? Does he want to take over the Wizarding World or does he just want what's underneath it?"

"What do you mean what's underneath it?" Ron asked, looking at him as if he were insane. "What's underneath it is soil and rock. I guarantee that is not much to grab Harry for."

"No, you idiot," Draco said, exasperated. "Has no one told you anything about how Voldemort operates?" At the mention of Voldemort's name freely, the others shivered. He ignored it and went on. "Hasn't anyone heard of the Underground? Well, my father told me about it. It's a series of tunnels, much like the labyrinth here, which takes Voldemort's followers all over England and into some parts of Europe, like Albania and Romania, et cetera. It's totally separate from the world above ground and that's where most Death Eater meetings are held, well, when they're not out hunting for kill."

"But what has that got to do with the Master?" Hermione asked. "If the Master wants territory, then he probably already has access to the Underground underneath England. England's one of the most well-known areas."

"That's the thing, he doesn't have Voldemort's Underground." Draco got off the bed and went over to one of the bookshelves where he pulled out a flimsy book that was battered at the edges, and opened it. He quickly turned to the page he was looking for and brought it over to the bed so everyone could see. It was a map of the Master's territory and of other Underground tunnels that didn't belong to him. Sure enough, the red dotted line marking the Master's tunnels did not stretch to England or the other places Voldemort frequented. "It doesn't make sense though, I know that's for sure. But he must want the territory."

"And that means bringing in You-Know-Who," Ginny said from her perch. "If I'm not mistaken, then Harry's going to be sacrificed to You-Know-Who for territory. This just can't get any better."

"Great, now we go up against You-Know-Who?" Ron asked from the bed, paling slightly causing his freckles to jump out.

"Either that, or we rescue Harry before the Dark Lord arrives," Ginny said. She got up and stretched her legs, feeling like she hadn't stood up in ages. "We need to get Jason. He might be able to help us. And besides, I did promise him I would come back to keep him from getting killed."

"Once again, who the hell is Jason?" Ron asked, getting up as well, with Hermione following. The group trooped to the door.

"He's a demon," Ginny told him simply. "He was in the cell next to mine and he sounded pretty nice, so he might give us more information. Also, he helped me to get out and I kinda left Galan unconscious in the same room as him so he might be a little out of it when we get there." Draco snorted as she realised that she had said yet another name that neither Ron nor Hermione knew, and now Ron was looking confused again. She rolled her eyes and said, "Never mind, Ron. If I answered every question about everyone I've met here, we would be here for almost an hour and that would not be good."

"Are you sure about this, Ginny?" Hermione asked, skeptically. "I mean, after all, he is a demon." Ron nodded emphatically.

"I'm relying on my instincts," Ginny replied, "and they say 'go'." She opened the door and looked around the corner before turning back to her friends. "Besides, even if he was one of the Master's best, he protected a witch against the Master's orders and then conspired with me to get out, so that has to be something, doesn't it?" Hermione threw up her hands, giving up, and set her mouth into a straight line. "Now, let's go."

Ginny led the way out the door and around the corner on their way back to the cells. She felt a bit nauseous all of a sudden, but didn't show it to the others. Now that she thought about it more, what if Jason was evil? What if this had also been part of the Master's plan all along?

****

"Hello?" called Arthur Weasley. He had just arrived home and found all the lights out. When he went around the corner and into the living room, his eyes spotted the mess on the floor which still hadn't been cleaned up. The wind flew in from an open window and rustled some papers on the table. Arthur turned and went into Ron's room. No one was there. He crossed the hallway to his daughter's bedroom. She wasn't there either. "Where is everybody?" he called out. He went back into the living room and looked down the stairs to the basement. All was quiet. Louder, he said, "I hope you aren't off chasing those demons...or whatever they were."

"They were demons," said a shaky voice from the bottom step of the stairs going upwards. Arthur jumped and turned to see Molly sitting on the step.

"Molly!" he exclaimed and rushed to hug her. When he hugged her, she stayed limp, not moving her arms to hug him back. He pulled back a bit and looked at her. Confusion lay in her eyes and there were scratches along her cheekbones and fingernail imprints embedded in her cheeks. "What happened to you? Where did you go? I was so worried..."

"You are my husband," she said without warning.

"Yes, I am," Arthur told her, brushing back a strand of her hair. She jerked away at the touch and covered her face, sobbing. "What's wrong, honey?"

"You know my past," she sobbed, bending over to put her head on her knees. "Why don't I know that? I'm the one who owns it, but you're the only one who knows it." She started to flail her arms like a little child while Arthur held her, trying to get him away from her.

"Molly?" he asked, confused. He got her attention now. She looked at him, almost innocently. "Tell me what happened."

"She's a demon, Father," said another voice from the stairway. Both Arthur and Molly looked up the stairs to see Percy standing on the landing above them. He began to descend the stairs. "And so am I."

"I don't...I don't understand," Arthur said, tears glazing his eyes. They weren't full enough to spill.

"What is happening now is just a stage," Percy told him. "She'll go crazy because she doesn't remember anything of her past, and then all of the humanity left in her will drain away and be taken over by the demon planted inside. I read it from one of the books they had for me. It's rather simple once you think about it."

Percy stepped around the pair down to the floor and Arthur straightened to face him. Molly looked frightfully between father and son, then burst into sobs.

"Percy Weasley is a demon," someone said from the doorway to the house. Right about then, Arthur had enough of people sneaking up on him from inside the darkness and he was happy at what happened next.

The lights suddenly went on and illuminated the scene. Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, and Albus Dumbledore were standing in the doorway with several wizards behind them. Percy panicked and made a break for the side door, but Arthur grabbed onto his arm just in time to pull him back. Percy punched him in the stomach though, and made another dash for the door, but this time Snape was ready for him. He grabbed hold of Percy's arms and bound them in unbreakable rope as Arthur doubled over. Small hands pulled Arthur down onto the step where Molly wrapped her arms around him, clinging tight.

"This is unfortunate," Dumbledore said, moving into the room. "I had hoped it didn't end up this way. Where are the kids?"

"The twins are at their office building," Arthur told him. "I don't know where Draco or Ginny are, but I did see Hermione, Ron, and Harry earlier."

"Percy, do you know anything?" Dumbledore asked, turning to him.

Percy shook his head. "I saw them earlier too, but I haven't the slightest idea where they are," he said, cockily. He added, "Nor will I care."

Dumbledore turned to Molly. She tightened her grip on Arthur who took her hand. "Dear, do you know where Hermione, Harry, and Ron are?" Arthur asked for Dumbledore. She looked at him nervously, then to Dumbledore, then back to Arthur. "Do you know anything, anything at all?"

Molly nodded at that. "They gave me this silver thing," she said, pulling a necklace with a mercury charm out from underneath her sweater. "And then, they did a spell and suddenly this whirly cloud came up. We came here and the black-haired boy took a dangly pendant thing-" she got up and went into the living room where a map was on the floor, picking up a chain from it, "-and swirled it around this map until he found 'her'. Then they disappeared in the whirly cloud when they said a spell of some sort."

Dumbledore walked over to where Molly was standing and carefully took the crystal from her hands without making her more nervous. He bent down as best as he could and swirled the crystal around above the map in large arcs. The crystal became attracted to the forest on the map and he brought it over to that area, shortening the arcs. By now, everybody was standing on their tip-toes to see what he was doing, holding their breath. Suddenly, the crystal stopped and Dumbledore dropped the tip on the map. Everybody let out their breath as one.

"They were scrying for someone," Dumbledore reported, straightening. "Arthur, would I be right in guessing that they were looking for these two-" he gestured to Molly and Percy, "-and Ginny and Draco?"

Arthur nodded. "I only knew about Molly's and Percy's disappearances, but Ginny and Draco weren't with the others when I saw them last."

"They must've strayed into the Underground before the others and gotten captured," Dumbledore said.

"The Underground, Albus?" McGonagall asked. "I thought that was a myth."

"No, I'm afraid not, Minerva," Dumbledore told her. He turned to Molly and Percy again. "Molly, Percy. You will be our guides for the rest of the morning. I would like you to show us where you were made into demons. Can you do that for us?" Molly nodded while Percy looked unmoved. "Very well, then. Let's go."

Molly and Dumbledore reached the front door first, with Snape, who was still holding Percy, and McGonagall next, Arthur after them, and everyone else following him.