#Perhaps this is why Alastor holds no sway over me

[mistystarshine]

You know, it's a bunch of really small details, but if you read my fics closely, you can tell that I was functionally blind for a long time

[sparrowrye]

Alastor x Fem! Reader {soulmates} Part 7

Synopsis: soulmate AU where you have the same mark on your body as your soulmate, and if your soulmate dies, you die too. Alastor needs to make sure that his soulmate is safe so he can continue his reign - whatever that takes. Though it looks like we have a couple secrets of our own.

Part 7: pushing boundaries

Previous Part

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I reached down to touch the cold, soft cloud. I swayed side to side and looked under me to see my trail along the cloud's surface. I was giggly with the rush of cold air in my lungs. I loved flying.

I flapped up once then dove into the cloud. My heart lurched at the momentary blindness but I came out underneath it to see the ocean beneath me. I looked up to see Husker's bright red wings cutting through the cloud after me. Both our wings were a stark contrast of the beautiful white and blue sky.

Husker was always willing to go on a fly with me. We made it a morning routine. It gave me a lot of exercise since I had to hold up my entire body with my core. It left everything sore but in a good way.

Landing was still rough, though. I glided down and tripped over my own feet while Husker slowed enough to perch exactly where he wanted. He smiled at me, his canine tooth sticking out of his smile.

I lunged at him. He rolled on his back and threw me over with his feet. Roughhousing with him was fun, usually leading into a magic showdown. The goal was to get them the opponent on the ground for five seconds.

I never won. But I did make Husker work for it.

I landed hard on my back and let out a gasp. A few seconds later Husker came into view with a side smile. "You know you'd probably do a lot better if you actually tried to hurt me like before."

"I didn't like you before." I groaned as I pulled myself to a sitting position.

"How kind." He held his hand out and helped me to my feet. I shook my body free of dirt and looked forward to a warm shower.

As we headed back to the house, I noticed Alastor stalking from the porch again. My eyes narrowed and I kept my attention on the door. I ignored him and went upstairs to my bedroom. Ever since he corrected me in the library, I've been ignoring him entirely.

Showering was a new venture with my demon form. I had cut myself a few times with my own claws when washing my hair. It also seemed to constantly tangle around my horns if I didn't have it pulled back. Not to mention the shower was small and I had large wings. They seemed to grow with every day.

I would be meeting Rosie again tonight. I had a journal full of things to tell her. I was slowly seeing more and more memories through my dreams. They were simple scenarios, often abusive, but surely they had something hidden in them.

I followed Alastor behind the house later that evening. I hated when he grabbed me by the waist instead of the shoulders like he used to do. It infuriated me when he would snatch it back before I could shove it off myself. He usually left me at Rosie's then disappeared into the shadows.

Rosie listened to my synopsis of my dreams with amazing patience. Once I had finished, she placed her cup down and asked, "When you dream of your mother, is there a color you often see?"

I was quiet for a moment as I thought about it. "Well...I mean there's lots of red...the walls are always red or brown. But...I don't know...I think...maybe there's some deep blues?”

"Hm...interesting."

"Why?"

"Conjure up that fork in your hand for me, dearie." I focused in on the fork, unsure of how to use teleporting yet. So I did the next best thing and sent it flying into my hand. "Did you notice there was a glow on it?"

"What? A glow?"

Rosie nodded. "Try again. Watch carefully."

This time I tried moving it more slowly. I could see a faint, blue glow surrounding it as it drew near. I watched it for a long moment for looking up at Rosie for an explanation.

"I have a strong feeling that...maybe...perhaps...your mother casted the curse on you."

"What?" I looked between Rosie and the fork. "No she didn't. She was trapped in those fights just like me! She wouldn't handicap my powers like that if it was the difference between living and dying."

"Maybe she did it to protect you. In your memories, you constantly talk about looking over her shoulder. She may have hiding you."

I looked down at my black claws. "Do you think...if the curse is active, does that mean she's alive?"

"I’m afraid not, sweetheart. A curse can stay on someone until they die." She stood to put a hand on my shoulder. "What about your father? Do you have any memories of him?"

I shook my head. "I don't know what he looks like. I don't...I wouldn't know how to pick him out in my dreams. He probably died in a ring fight."

"Or perhaps he escaped. There's still hope, dearie. Let's try looking again."

Our memory search yielded nothing. Though Rosie says I've unraveled more of the curse with the practicing of magic. She reassured me that I was doing everything possible to help my case.

"How's living with Alastor?" she asked abruptly. I coughed on the tea and covered my mouth with a napkin. "Ooh, that doesn’t sound too pretty."

"It's..." I tapped my claws on the glass. "It's uh...it's something."

Rosie laughed. "Oh you sweet thing. You're being so polite. Come, tell Auntie Rosie what it's really like living with him. I know how he can be."

I held my suspicions. "He's uh...Husker and I fixed up the house together. It was practically falling apart."

"Needed a ladies touch, hm?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"How's he treating you? I'll straighten that man out if he's not treating you like the proper lady you are." My mind jumped to the library and my first escape attempt.

"He's been...alright. He seems to be impatient with me a lot."

"Goodness that man," she huffed. I noticed a shadow appear along the wall behind her. It was Alastor's shadow. "Don't worry dear, I'll tell that old man to mind his manners with you."

"Come now, I'm not that old." Alastor stepped out from behind her chair. She laughed and crossed her arms as she faced him.

"Be patient with your soulmate, Alastor. She's still learning a lot."

"Not to worry, Rosie, I've been very patient with her. Like you said, she has a lot to learn and who better to teach her than me." He casted a glare in my direction. I rubbed my sweaty palms together.

"You betta. Us girls have our own language and I'll know if you weren't being kind to such a sweet thing like her." She hugged me tightly.

"Of course, my lady," Alastor bowed his head to her. "Well, we must be heading home now." He held out his hand for me. The two taller adults watched me, waiting. I clenched my teeth and took his dark red hand. "Good day, Rosie."

"Good day, Alastor." She held the door open for us. I kept my eyes on the ground as we walked over to the scorched symbol. Rosie waved goodbye as we turned to face her. Alastor lifted my hand up and grabbed it with his other one. He placed his hand on my hip and pulled me close. My lips nearly pulled back into a snarl as he smiled down at my discomfort.

The smell of the ocean reached my nose first. My feet touched earth and I immediately shoved him away. He grabbed both my wrists and held them at his shoulder height. "Now is that anyway to treat your soulmate?"

"You surely don't know how to treat one," I snarled, letting my sharp teeth show.

"You make it difficult to with this defiance of yours." He let go of one arm to twiddle his claws in my face.

"Oh right," I scoffed, "I completely forgot. I'm not being held here against my will."

"Not anymore, you're not." He let go. "You came back willingly the night you reunited with your old master."

My tail whipped back and forth. "You're not a savior! You're anything but one. I'm perfectly capable of living on my own. Especially with my new magic."

"Magic you don't yet have control over. And a form you have yet to master for long periods of time. You wouldn't last one week as a young, naive Demon in this world."

"I'm not naive." My claws elongated and my wings grew bigger. My hands emitted a purple glow that rang along my entire body. "I learned just fine how to survive for five years on my own. I know how to handle myself!"

"Do not raise your voice at me." Red stitches appeared on the corners of his mouth and his antlers grew to the size of an elk. His body portions grew inhumanly and he towered above me in seconds. My ears flattened against my head and I bent low to the ground.

He can't kill you. He can't kill you. He can't kill you.

"I'm a human with my own free will." My voice quivered. I had yet to see him distort like this.

"You're a Demon." His arms grew even longer and his huge claws slammed down on either side of me. "A Demon without proper training on her magic. You are a danger to others and yourself." His face slowly came closer to mine. His mouth stopped moving as he spoke, instead his yellow teeth pulsing when he did.

I sprouted my wings and shot myself out from under him. He reached for me but I was too fast with my wings and wind magic. I dove backwards over the cliff and nearly fell into the sharp rocks at the bottom. I pushed myself over with wind and caught myself at the last second. Pain shot through my back at the force of the stop.

I boosted myself further away from the cliff and looked over my shoulder. My face paled at the sight of Alastor growing bigger than the house. I suddenly regretted my choice to run.

I clenched my teeth and flew higher up. I was in it now. I was a Full mage. If my magic was as untamed as he claimed, that meant I was unpredictable.

Black tentacles sprouted from his back and flew at me. I barely missed the first and the second slammed painfully into my foot. I dove down then pushed myself up into the gray clouds. The night sky would help provide cover.

At least, that's what I thought before his red eyes lifted above the clouds, sending a red light across their surfaces. His pupils were a radio dial but I knew that didn't lessen his sight. His sharp teeth appeared next.

I stopped flapping and fell back through the clouds. The tentacles were still there and came at me at inhuman speed. I couldn't evade them as they slammed into my face and chest. Fire did little and they wrapped around my legs and waist within seconds. I flapped furiously and dug my claws into their squishy skin.

The tentacles pulled me back towards the house. Alastor's terrifying figure shrunk the closer the tentacles drew me in. My flailing lessened as he returned to the state I recognized.

The tentacles pulled me in faster and he stuck out his clawed hand, enclosing around my throat. The black things unwrapped from me and pulled on my wings. My feet barely touched the ground as he held me way too close to the edge. His hand was securely under my jaw and digging into my skin so I started to bleed.

"You need to accept the fact that you will never leave this place for the rest of your life," he said with radio static behind his voice. He let me down so my feet were flat on the ground but so he could tower over me. I put one hand on his wrist and the other arm across his chest to keep him away.

"I'm growing tired of your antics. These little outbursts of yours will stop today." It was more terrifying that he was smiling through his anger. I leaned away despite the sheer drop beneath me, and he only followed never more than an inch away. "If you don't want me to treat you like a caged pet, I suggest you apologize and quit it with this delusion of yours."

His smile was wide and his breath smelled like roadkill. He dug his claws further into the wound he created, making me wince. "I'm-I'm sorry." He held me over the edge for several heartbeats. Eventually he pulled me away but didn't let get off my neck.

"I never want to hear you mention anything about leaving here, again. To me or to Husker. Do you understand?"

I wanted to cough from the way he was holding me but I held it in. The tentacles were still pulling onto my wings and pulling them painfully down. My resignation made my shoulders fall. "Perfectly."

He let go. I turned to the side to cough, clutching at my bleeding neck. I felt the wounds closing but the blood was still plastered to my skin.

"Good talk." His cane appeared in one hand and he put the other behind his back. His voice sounded chipper again. "Come, dear, let's clean you up." He held his hand out towards the house, looking at me sideways. I took a deep breath and walked past. He walked close behind me.

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

My Thoughts If My Abilities Were 100% The Same As Hazbin Hotel’s Alastor...

[Note: Don’t Reblog Without Permission, I Mean It...also reading this post is optional...it’s okay that not everyone reads this post, and can wait for a theory post. also this may talk a bit about how my faith is at the moment being I guess fragile even if it doesn’t say “fragile” in there but it seems so to me, and it’s okay if some don’t read this.

(also I know this note is very long, and I guess if some want to, if they still are interest in read this, even if it has some uninteresting stuff mixed in, I guess it’s okay to skip this long note, but please make sure to respect the “don’t reblog without permission” thing...also if it doesn’t show everything and only seem to show the Note, press expand.)

I don’t want my thoughts and feelings to be misunderstood and being told I need to be “saved” and I rather not have it be like a few years ago, when a toxic-religious jerk kept throwing misused words at me when I came out about believing in a Goddess now as well, I mean did they ignore the parts that said I still believe in God as well, but it still doesn’t make what happen okay....

and I don’t know if I will ever truly get over it, but if I don’t, then at least I can try to not let it get to me like it did when it happen...

anyway that is all I have to say in this note, other than to remember to respect the whole “don’t reblog” thing, I am still not okay with the certain situation that has to do with the disrespect that has to do with someone ignoring it, but hopefully things will work out and they finally respect my feelings and only reblog if it says it’s okay without permission, but if it says don’t do that without permission, then please respect it, and hope some can understand what I’m trying to say about it and there is no misunderstandings.]      

like I had found out with that freaky stuff that had happen with the radio a few days ago and seems to happen sometimes....

and even me discovering that if I move a certain way, like moving from left or right like swaying my upper body side to side to the left and right, the modern radio seems to react a bit to it.....

anyway if this weird thing and possibly ability was at the same level as Alastor...

I would possibly use to play the song “Tot Musica” from the One Piece Movie that Uta appears in, when I can, I hope to watch the movie.

I haven’t watched the movie, but I know about some parts like the awesome music thanks to Youtube, but if I find any spoilers I wont say anything about it.

I think the reason why that freaky thing with the radio happens, might have to do with the signal it gets and also maybe it only happens once in a while.

well, at least I know Alastor isn’t a Nonbinary-Man, even though it would be cool if he was, and it could work in Fanon, but if he turns out to be that way in the canon, I think I would be both amazed and freaked out. XD

and I know I may have pointed this out before, but I think it might be a VERY long while before I flux, I believe my Ace is dominate, which I don’t really mind honestly, at least it is better than taking a while to figure out I had been picking up some of those around me in real life, own energies and it is the other reason I keep my gem bracelets on, so I don’t pick up that pheromone energy, and if I am to feel that way, I want it to be of my own body’s natural accord.

but even if when I do flux to where I start to feel s*xual attraction, some human guys shouldn’t hold their breath in thinking I will find them appealing enough to want to start any form of romantic relationship with them, even though I had online boyfriends before, and seem to have bad luck with them, I have no current interest in getting a real life boyfriend, either by just online (where he is still very much real) or by meeting one in person in real life....

I rather have a ficto-boyfriend one aka a husbando, and perhaps just ship him with some other fictional character, then having my heart broken.

and yeah just like Peridot from Steven Universe, I can still ship and have my own OTP type of ships...

and it appears the ability that Alastor has is called “Technokinesis”

which explains his ability to broadcast his work throughout all of Hell.

 I know that I am still the opposite of Alastor (who is still just a fictional character) because while he had done some certain life as both a human and even as the radio demon....

I would rather just groin punch those who deserve it, even if it isn’t possible and is just wishful thinking, but I still have that wishful list that involves it, and besides adding those three angels that tried to force Lilith to return to Adam, and besides Mammon the Prince of Greed being at the very top of the list...

it does have normal humans added to it, but so far they are male...

though if some rumors true about a certain woman, who’s name starts with a “H” then her name could be added to that list as well, and well even if it was a few years ago that I learned about it, but if it is 100% true...then it gives me a good reason to put her on that list.

and anyway besides the song Tot Musica...

I wouldn’t mind playing the song “Afro Circus” from the Madagascar 3 Movie...

with there being ethereal holograms of the characters from the movie dancing and singing the song, all while wearing the rainbow afros....

and it starting in the 5th Heaven and the 5th Ring Of Hell...

and it all being a techno remix, and just as it stops and there is some form of peace....it starts up again, like that funny story where two guys ended up playing the same son “what’s new p*ssycat” over and over again, and driving everyone crazy, and only playing one different song, before it returns to that song.

I’m weird and I don’t really 100% trust some of the masculine angels, while I can perhaps trust some, but there can be a good reason for my being distrustful to some of them now, given how three of them did try to force Lilith to return to Adam, and did what they were asked NOT to do....

I know not everyone will understand, some who are either religious, toxic-religious or atheist, but I find some stuff that some masculine angels have done, is messed up, well the ones I know of so far...

I mean it is still messed up some toxic-religious jerk, kept throwing the whole “may god have mercy on you.” or “may the lord have mercy on you.” (I know it was one of the two...) at me more than once, even though I pointed out how bad it was making me feel and making me cry, and that jerk did it because they didn’t agree with me believing in a Goddess now, and possibly having to do with my still figuring out what type of nonbinary I am...which it is nonbinary-girl..

if they knew about my being a descendant of King David, as well as King Solomon, they would probably not even care and still throw those misused words at me....

excuse me if I started to open my eyes to the fact that something has been off for who knows how many centuries, but I’m not going to force convert people like some humans do, and if some want to convert it should be of their own free will and not forced by some people who come to the door and use passive-aggressive means, if some do go to the doors to share their religious beliefs, they should try to respect the feelings of the person they are speaking to, and NOT try to force them to convert, it is one thing to have them think about it, but don’t try to force them.

also I still wonder if what happen with that toxic-religious jerk, does count as religious trauma, well technically it would be toxic-religious trauma.

also once again, I know it ain’t a official title and I’m weird enough to finally let it sink into my head that by being a Earth Angel (even if it is a Defective Glitch one...) and being a descendant of royalty (which being descendant of King Solomon and his son Rehoboam, isn’t really a curse but is more of a blessing.)

and well the whole “Earth Angel Princess” pop into my head, which is perhaps one of the weirdest things to pop into my head....next to my wanting to punch Mammon in the groin, and he freaking knows why....of course, I’m not really talking about his Helluva Boss Counterpart or any of his other ficto-counterparts....

even if it is normal for people to be a little greedy at times, there is just some lines you do NOT cross when it comes to it, even with charity, it is good to give from your heart, but even that can perhaps have a bad side to it...not from the goodness in your heart, but it can perhaps still have a bad side if your not careful...

there can still be a good side of giving to charity, but you should still be careful when doing so, and make sure you are really helping those who really need it, or like if you don’t have enough to give and need them for food and clothes for yourself and your family.

and trying to scapegoat all of humanity of the evils of a few, doesn’t seem right.

even though I can still believe in God and even the Goddess, but my whole believing in Jesus, is in I suppose more in the neutral...?

like I can still believe in the good part of him, but I must disagree with a certain situation that I find as a type of evidence, and my trust for him is around either 99 or 98% at the moment given the certain evidence that has come to light...

I don’t want to say what it is right now, because some might not believe it could be true, even if certain events might prove it to be true...

and I don’t want others to tell me to “you should place 100% of your trust and belief” in him, and if some do that, they might not get why it has come to this...

why it went down some and why I am a bit disappointed, and well it might return to 100% at some point, but until a certain situation is fixed, it is staying at either 99 or 98%....

anyway I think it is better that I don’t have 100% abilities as Alastor, and that freaky thing that has been happening with that modern radio, only happens like once in a while, at least it seems normal the other times, so that’s good.

I’m listening to the song “born without a heart” by Faouzia right now, it seems to fit my feelings at times, like it could fit anyone who had been hurt by someone or like more than just one person.

there is a reason why I use gem bracelets as sealing charms and limiters, and my use of gems wouldn’t just be to protect me from outside energies....and to keep incubus from scaring me awake when they only touched me for a split second or minute but it being enough to scare me awake...

yeah I still believe it was a incubus, I might not of seen them, and it was dark and I was on my back, and I guess it was like maybe being self-aware in the dream and being between awake and asleep....

and it’s fine that not everyone agrees about that, but I still think it was a incubus, and if I remember right, it was the reason I started to wear gem bracelets to bed when I go to sleep...well it only started out as one, but I started to wear more than one for extra protection.

also it might be a good thing that I don’t have the same powers as Alastor, because I don’t think I would be able to fully control them, so I’m fine with it just being the whole freaky thing with the radio, and the whole things I touch and hold start to move like my pendulum when I don’t wear my bracelets...

of course certain necklaces will still do that, even when I’m wearing my bracelets, that are suppose to act as sealing charms and limiters.

when I first got a pendulum, it had freaked me out how it started to move like crazy, and then I ended up putting it away for I guess a few months or so, and didn’t touch it for a while, it had freaked me out....

and my situation with what has been going on with the radio at times, and even the whole thing with my pendulum, and how even some stuff I hold with just my fingers had started to move like my pendulum if I think a certain way (which is why I made my gem bracelets become the sealing charms and limiters to stop that kind of thing from happening....) and well I wouldn’t be surprised if Alastor got some kind of enjoyment and entertainment from that.

but as the song by Pink goes “I’m Not Here For Your Entertainment”, Alastor.

and of course, the same would go for Vox. lol

and yeah I know they are just fictional characters, but if they try to make a deal with me and try to own my hybrid of a soul....even if they were real.

I would have to say this to them, and I would say it to Himbo Devil from the Cuphead Show as well...

“you can’t handle my soul, it is way too weird for you to handle.”

yeah, Devil from the Cuphead Show, in my opinion, is a bit of a Himbo.

well I view Doctor Deep from Sonic Prime and even Eggman from Sonic Boom, as Egg-Himbos....they might be geniuses but they are bit of cute idiots.

I even view Optimus Prime from Earthspark, as a Himbo Prime....

I do feel like I want to glomp Megatron, as well as Tarantulas from Earthspark...

but I might have to ask those two if it would be okay to do that, lol. XD

I know not to try glomping Alastor, even if I could have thoughts of wanting to...

and in theory, if he was real and decide to hug me instead, I might end up jumping a bit form the contact, like if he were to do that when behind me...

it might hard to believe, but I do tend to scare easy at times....

like when someone opens the door to my room, and I guess it depends how it is open, and I end up jumping a little, you know while still sitting, and it not being like a “jump” type of jump, but like a spooked type of jumped...

or like if I am not aware of it, and someone should hug me from behind, or touch my shoulder or back....and there is the chance it will end up scaring me and cause me to jump a little.

I think other times I’m fine, but other times I think I will have those moments.

but anyway if I did end up having 100% the same powers as Alastor from Hazbin Hotel, I think I would try to to add the whole sealing those type of powers by the use of my gems....

I don’t mind the small freaky thing that had started to happen with the radio, at least that is a little okay, even if it did surprise me when it first happen a few days ago around this month of May...

or would it be a week or so ago...?

anyway doesn’t really matter I guess, I think later I will play some video games, but for now I will just check out a bit of the stuff on here and then read some books I have and maybe after that I will watch a movie, like Paramount’s Sonic Movies both the first and second movie....can’t wait to see the third.

I guess I don’t really have much to say about my thoughts if I had 100% abilities as Alastor, and I really don’t mind if it is just really REALLY small, it’s better if it’s small, and I don’t mind that it isn’t at 100% and it’s better that way.

still a bit freaky though, but I guess it is manageable, so no need to worry about it and at least it doesn’t happen a lot and only seems to happen once in a while

and it might have to do with the signal, it might depend on that.

anyway I hope some can at least try to understand my feelings about what I had talked about in this, that didn’t have to do with the other stuff I talked about that has to do with the freaky thing with the radio and even Alastor...

I don’t want my new feelings and thoughts be viewed as blasphemy, plus ya shouldn’t throw that around either, like what that toxic-religious jerk did when they kept throwing certain words at me, and it wasn’t really helping at all, and was only making me feel bad and cry, and even though I pointed this out, they weren’t listening and they perhaps thought they were “Helping” but they probably weren’t really doing it for me, but they were partly do it for the wrong reason, which of course they were doing it for the wrong reason....

even if what they might think they were “saving” and “helping me” but they were just doing more harm than good, at least I have friends and family who wouldn’t cross a line like that, even if I am in the Neo-spiritual closet...

anyway I guess there can be a few or a lot of people who wouldn’t be over certain things, and having been hurt by a toxic-religious person is one of them.

if I am not able to play a video game or watch Sonic Movies today, I can try to do so tomorrow, anyway if I have more thoughts about the whole freaky radio thing happening and how it reminds me of Alastor, and why I don’t want those abilities to be at 100% like his, I might talk about it another time...                                                                      

[halothenthehorns]

TLTNL- THE HOGWARTS HIGH INQUISITOR

"Padfoot mate, you don't really think you think," he cut himself off and went cross eyed before trying again, "I mean that Harry is-" then he stopped again for the ludicrous statement couldn't even manage to pass his lips.

Sirius watched with some distant form of amusement as James struggled to find words, a concept in itself, as he ran his fingers hard through his hair and tried to find a way to answer. "What if I do? All those stories we've heard about what happens to those in Azkaban, what makes you think that didn't happen to me after twelve years? Turning into a dog could only have saved me so much-"

"Don't," James snapped, his eyes darkening by the second. "I can't stand thinking of you like that, it's never going to happen."

"It's already happening Prongs," Sirius whispered back. "What if we can't stop this, it's all supposed to happen in less than a year! People will start going missing, and then Dumbledore's going to come around and get you and Lily to go into hiding, and I'll do it again, I swear I will, I'll hunt down that rat bastard and-"

"Think what you're saying," James snapped, fighting hard not to knock him upside the head while he did. "Future tense mate, we'll find a way to stop this happening well before then, so stop acting like it's inevitable already. You're not going to turn into that, I refuse."

Sirius still couldn't seem to take his words to heart, gazing at a picture Lily had hung up on the wall of a forest that had branches swaying in the wind, an occasional critter flipping in and out of sight. It reminded him of the Forbidden Forest, where he'd had so many happy memories, and it scared him how tainted those already were, and kept reminding him it was only going to get worse. "It's my worst nightmare come to life, I don't know how but the universe did that to me. Made me go as mad as my folks, in a different way I'll grant but all the same, and then jailing me right back there."

  "It's not going to happen," James repeated, and would keep doing so until it sunk through his thick head.

They met eyes, Sirius almost absently saying, "you have always been around to remind me of that," and then quickly flipped subjects before even the notion of this no longer existing could linger, "honestly though, I thought you were going to bring me up here to rib me for talking to Harry like that."

James snorted and rolled his eyes, forcing himself to relax as he seemed to think he'd accomplished something. "I'd be remiss if you didn't tell Harry he wasn't having enough fun in his life. I still think you should show up at Hogsmeade and show those three what we used to get up to, Harry needs more fun in his life and he's clearly not getting it from his friends."

Sirius bit at his lip as he realized Harry wasn't getting that from him either, he'd been far too consumed with his own pity party, but at James' words, he was now at least holding out hope it would come true soon.

James watched as Sirius was already starting to fall back into wallowing, and he couldn't let that stand. Sirius was usually his inspiration to start all the madness they got up to, seeing him so low now truly was doing something to him he could hardly put into words, and he desperately hoped that the next time Sirius' name came up it would be in some form of his release back into a normal life already, he'd suffered long enough for it. For now he grasped his shoulder with a tight squeeze before actually managing his old laugh back and saying, "come on now, let's see what kind of mass destruction the school causes in rebellion against whatever that stupid comment of Percy's was. Dumbledore not in charge, pfft, Fudge couldn't do any such thing."

Sirius did at least smile as he followed him back for that, any talk of setting Umbridge in the area with the twins was bound to cause a laugh, which he was hoping to hear from soon. The methods she used on Harry weren't going to hold long.

Lily and Remus were still very concerned by whatever that reaction had been, but also knew James was the best, if not the only person Sirius would get help from with it and so were plenty satisfied to see him not visibly lingering on it when they came back.

Harry most of all wanted to persist on the subject, as he felt like he'd let Sirius down in some way, but when his godfather flopped down beside him with a normal smile in place Harry just couldn't bring himself to mess it all up again when his dad had clearly seemed to comfort him about it. So as James picked up the book and began, they were all feeling almost slightly hopeful again this was all going to somehow work out.

They'd expected to have to comb the paper to find this mysterious article, but instead it was right on the front page, with a very large shot of Umbridge accompanying it.

"Urgh, as if you don't get enough of that around the castle, now you've got closeups," James crinkled his nose in disgust.

The title read the woman's new position as High Inquisitor.

"Why do I already have a bad feeling about whatever the hell that made up title is?" Remus sighed.

"You've got good instincts," Harry's eyes were already narrowed with dislike.

Harry asked what that could mean, as Hermione began reading the article about the Ministry passing new legislation giving itself new levels of control inside Hogwarts.

James struggled to understand even the first sentence! What did that mean, the Ministry had control over their school?

Lily had her lips very tightly pursed as her mind flew through the ramifications of that. Hogwarts had always been of its own body and under the guide of the current Headmaster. This had allowed for a lot of free will inside the school outside of Ministry influence which many considered a good thing, as it left the children to grow up and form their own opinions of what they thought were right and wrong. Now their own government was more than actively stepping in as more than just a substitute teacher role? Just what the hell was Umbridge going to have these students doing? Aside from torturing them!

James looked to his friends like he was hoping for some kind of clarification from them, but both seemed just as confounded by the idea.

The Minister had been growing uneasy about the goings-on of the school for a while, says Junior Minister Percy Weasley.

"Did they have to post his title? I find that entirely unnecessary as of course his Junior would agree with him," Sirius scoffed.

"I just wish they hadn't said his last name, marks a bad light on all the Weasleys," Remus rolled his eyes for poor Arthur and his reaction to further seeing his son agreeing with all this.

Minister Fudge is now responding to the concerns from anxious parents who were concerned of the direction the school was moving in.

"Then they should talk to the Headmaster, and deal with this in house as it's always been," Lily stated absently, still trying to wrap her head around how this abrupt change had just sprung up overnight and it was entirely allowed.

This was not the first time Fudge had been seen influencing the school of late, as of the end of August he'd also enacted Educational Decree Number Twenty-two, giving the Ministry power to elect a teacher at the school should the Headmaster or mistress not find a candidate.

"Oh that's even better, they've been at this since the summer," James said in exasperation, already a spiel of comments he could imagine his parents saying if they'd heard about this.

Weasley continued speaking about how this was how Umbridge had begun her time there, and she was an immediate success-

"Let's put Percy in detention with her and see how long he holds that," Harry said grimly as he rubbed absently at the back of his hand.

"He'd have to be set up to be put in there, and even then I'll bet he could kiss her arse out of it," Sirius growled, perhaps even more darkly than he should have just for having to watch Harry do that.

Harry cut in there to protest the absurdity of that statement, but Hermione shushed him and kept reading about Percy saying she was revolutionizing the teaching of Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"By not teaching them! Yeah, I'd say that's revolutionary!" Remus balked at the absurdity.

The success of this function lead into current Educational Decree Number twenty-three, the creation of the High Inquisitor. A position that allowed the Ministry to evaluate the teachers on premises and make sure they were up to scratch to be teaching future youths. Professor Umbridge had delightfully accepted this role along with her teacher's position.

Lily had to swallow a bitter taint as she almost realized what a good idea that could have been coming from anyone else. Abysmal teachers like Lockhart and Snape wouldn't have been a problem then...but that's not what this job was really doing, and she knew it full well, so didn't bother speaking it.

These new transitions had received much support from parents who had children attending school.

"I do not believe that," James scoffed. "If my folks had heard the Ministry was weaseling around inside Hogwarts they'd have thrown a fit. They never have before and they're just suddenly doing it now after they've spent the summer campaigning what a mentally unstable person Dumbledore was? That doesn't seem the least bit suspicious it's all happening at the same time?"

Lucius Malfoy being quoted as saying his mind was much more at ease knowing Dumbledore was being put under evaluation.

"Ah, well at least that support suddenly made sense," Remus scowled.

The paper continues in saying this was something that should have long since been done considering the controversial appointments over the last few years, including half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, a delusional ex-Auror known as Alastor, Mady-Eye, Moody, and the werewolf Remus Lupin.

Remus suddenly felt such a sharp twist of fear in him he retched on the spot and felt lucky he didn't vomit. He'd never been afraid of attention before, unavoidable when you made friends with James and Sirius, but the fact that his name was actually being thrown out like that honestly made him question how he was even still alive. After all, the last werewolf that had ended up in the papers had a hole hunt formed around him-

Sirius gently cut off this train of thought by smacking Remus upside the head and saying, "knock it off Moony, if they haven't done anything to you before now they're not going to suddenly start just because the Ministry is pushing in. You're long gone, clearly not making a bid to come back, and Dumbledore's got you doing that shitty arse underground work that leaves you so far off the radar anyways it's a miracle if you'll even be reading this."

Remus almost found the comfort somewhere in there, at least his body stopped trying to throw up.

Harry was honestly curious enough to interrupt what this mysterious underground work was. He'd long since gathered it had something to do with Remus staying in contact with other werewolves, but he still longed for details he decided against asking even now because it was such a touchy subject for the poor guy.

Others were not as enthusiastic about these changes, two of the Wizengamot had quit in protest of this.

"While I applaud them," Lily nodded sadly, "but it's almost a backfire on them as well, for the same reason Tonks and Arthur haven't quit their post yet. They do more good holding their tongue and staying on the inside."

"That method ceases being useful when it's all you end up doing," James scowled, though at Harry for holding his tongue far too often.

One being quoted as saying that was a school, not the next outpost for Fudge, this was only further attempts to discredit Dumbledore.

Sirius gave a merry little applause for that bit at least, thankful that this had been put into the paper at all the way it was running lately.

The article ended then with the ominous comment how one of those who had quit had details of goblin subservice groups on a separate page. Hermione said at least now they had their reason of Umbridge being here, and now she could go and inspect all of their teachers? This was outrageous!

Harry agreed with his fist tightly clenched, the words etched into his hand already a dull white instead of having vanished.

James saw red as he realized four days had already been enough to put that mark into his skin. Years later and it was still there. None of them had the delusion this wasn't going to happen to Harry again, and he doubted he could read through it without screaming some more no matter how little good it would do.

But a grin was unfurling on Ron's face.

"I immediately like where his thoughts went," Sirius piped up at once as the same grin appeared, thinking of that foul toad trying to inspect someone like McGonagall and blissfully aware who was going to come up on top.

They asked what he found to smile about, and he said he couldn't wait for Umbridge to inspect McGonagall, the toad wouldn't know what hit her.

The others caught on as well, and now they were all grinning in anticipation of watching McGonagall have a thing or two to say to that pitiful excuse for a teacher.

Hermione stopped the conversation then by getting to her feet and reminding they had History of Magic. Harry was surprised when he didn't find Umbridge in there to inspect the lesson.

"What are the odds she won't be inspecting any of the ones Harry's in?" Remus said without a trace of hope.

"Non existent," James said without looking up.

Nor was she in potions, where Harry was given back his essay with a D for a grade.

"I find it an actual miracle he didn't just flat give you a T," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Once all the assignments had been handed back, Snape gave a speech at the front saying he'd graded these as if they had been OWL finals, and hoped to see better improvement over all, or he would start handing out detentions to the dunces that got d's.

Lily almost felt a twitch appear on her lips again at his alliterations, he'd always gotten a giggle out of her when he did this, but she forced herself not to react.

Malfoy snickered loudly that someone had gotten so low a grade.

"I'm guessing he gave you an O after you cheated off of someone else's," James rolled his eyes.

"Or paid another student to do it," Sirius agreed.

Harry saw Hermione looking sideways at his and he quickly stuffed it out of sight before she could see.

"Why bother?" Remus asked curiously.

"I can already hear the lecture she'd give about how I should have tried harder or some nonsense," Harry sighed.

Lily frowned at him for that, wishing he would try harder in this class even if he did hate the teacher, but at least holding herself back.

Determined not to give Snape a reason to ruin this attempt, Harry carefully studied every line of instructions today before brewing his potion. It was still a bit more runny and not quite the right shade of turquoise like Hermione's, but he handed it in with the satisfaction Snape couldn't say anything about it with mingled defiance and relief.

"I commend you, considering at some point I'd have just chucked the cauldron in his face," James snorted.

Hermione began babbling at once about OWL grades as they left for lunch, saying while she hadn't expected the top grade,

"I don't actually believe that," Remus snorted, "I can already imagine her near the end of this crying every five seconds if she doesn't get all O's."

even a pass at this stage was encouraging.

Neither boy responded, so she kept going on about how they now had time to improve, these grades were the baseline for their future-

"Is she going to keep going with this?" James groaned as he eyed the pages with misery. He'd been starting this thinking of more Umbridge carnage, but instead he'd been suffering through some OWL memories he'd have rather forgotten.

Ron finally cut her off if she wanted to know their grades, she should just ask them.

Hermione feigned surprise at the question, but finally did ask.

Ron said he'd got a P, while Fred popped up then to say there was nothing wrong with a good healthy P.

"Err, doesn't P mean-"

"Poor, yeah," Sirius said with chipper, "only one letter off from acceptable, so really they're not wrong."

Hermione was surprised at this statement, as P stood for Poor?

Lee agreed, then said at least it was better than D for Dreadful.

"I always thought it stood for Dunderhead," James grinned.

"Stop naming things after yourself James," Remus quipped.

Harry did not enter the conversation, but Hermione was still in full swing.

"This is most likely going to be an ongoing topic until next year, when she'll move onto complaining about her NEWT grades two years too early," Sirius groaned.

Hermione kept going saying the passing grades were O for outstanding, then A-

Though Fred corrected her E came next,

James gasped wildly, and then frantically prodded the page with his wand as if insisting to find a flaw.

"What do you mean Hermione doesn't know all these by heart?" Sirius agreed mildly. "The way she was obsessing over them, even having done some pre exams last year, you'd really think she'd know that."

"I'm actually quite sure she only took note of what the top grade was and didn't care about the others," Remus rolled his eyes.

for Exceeds Expectations. Personally he thought he and his twin should have gotten E's on everything, considering they exceeded expectations just by showing up.

Causing all five of them to giggle.

They all laughed except Hermione,

"Why is that a recurring thing, it always makes me sad," Lily sighed.

"Someone needs to tell her she's getting a T for her sense of humor, see if she lightens up any then," James agreed.

who ignored him and agreed then it was A for acceptable, and that was the last passing grade.

Ron mock celebrated then you could get a P, then D, while George finished with T, for troll.

Harry laughed unexpectedly, then looked around and realized that while they were smiling, he realized it was at his reaction, and he blinked in shock.

Harry laughed again, though he was not sure whether or not George was joking.

"Nope," Sirius grinned, "though I don't understand why they'd want to give you a letter grade that would make someone think, well that's better than B for Blast-Ended Skrewt."

"You're an idiot," Remus rolled his eyes.

He imagined end of year and getting T's on all his grades, and immediately resolved to do better on his work.

"Whatever gets you through it love," Lily grinned as the thought had never crossed her mind Harry would do any such thing. Even while being at his breaking point he'd still been putting effort into his homework, there was just no way he'd do so poorly on all his exams if he just tried a little harder.

Fred asked if they'd had an inspected lesson yet, because they just had in Charms.

George agreed she'd just sat in the back of the class making notes the whole time, and Flitwick was perfectly polite to her of course. Then near the end she went around asking them some questions on the subject.

Fred asked who they had for their afternoon classes and when Harry started with Trelawney, Fred agreed a T if ever there was one.

Causing them all to snort with laughter as they suddenly imagined the wonderful idea of if the twins had taken her class and the mayhem that could have been.

Then Umbridge herself.

George warned Harry about minding his manners then, because Angelina would do him in if he missed any more Quidditch practice.

"Because that's the important part," James said grimly as his eyes flashed protectively to his son again, wondering if it was possible Umbridge's detentions could somehow get worse if she realized Harry wasn't going to take her message.

Harry didn't have to wait for his last class to see Umbridge again though. As they were taking their seats inside Divination, a sudden hush went over the room as Umbridge entered, causing Trelawney to look around as Umbridge greeted her.

Lily felt an interesting struggle taking place in her mind. She'd disliked Trelawney from the instant she'd been introduced because of insisting her son was to die, which would set any mother on edge. Yet she hated Umbridge quantifiably worse for actually hurting her baby. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to see happen here, but she wouldn't deny she was listening just as curiously as the others.

She began by asking if she'd received the note Umbridge had sent about the date and time of this inspection?

Trelawney went stiff, nodded without response, and then spoke to the class as if she wasn't there that they would continue looking through their dreams.

"Can't deny I'm already intrigued," Remus said grudgingly. "Trelawney shouldn't have had much to do with her before now considering how rarely she leaves her own tower, which means her ire with this woman must come from something we haven't seen yet."

"Maybe just from students like Parvati and Lavender who might have talked about her," Sirius offered without much thought, but immediately corrected himself when he realized, "but they haven't exactly gone out of their way disliking Umbridge themselves yet either."

"I'm sure it's just the insult of her class being inspected," James snorted.

They divided into pairs and Trelawney went to take her seat, realized Umbridge was standing right behind it, and instead began circling the class.

Harry quickly made up a dream on the spot about how he'd drowned Snape in his cauldron.

"They say dreams are where you live out your fantasies," Sirius snickered.

Ron snickered as he went to work on this, saying you were supposed to add age to the date of the dream, plus the number of letters in the subject, before asking if that was drowning, cauldron, or Snape?

"Drowning, isn't it? The other two are nouns," Remus said absently.

"Nouns can be the subject," Lily shrugged, "it depends on verb usage and-"*

"Please, this is why I was grateful Hogwarts never subjected us to Muggle classes, don't start on things I don't care about," Sirius groaned.

Harry couldn't care less about the answer as Ron went to work while Harry eavesdropped on Umbridge catching up to Trelawney and beginning to ask her some questions, such as how long she'd been in this position?

Trelawney regarded her for a moment before deeming the question worthy of the answer sixteen years.

Harry felt a sudden whack at the base of his skull for some unknown reason, absently reaching up and brushing at the back of his head as if to make sure it was still attached but ultimately ignoring the sensation.

Then Umbridge asked that Dumbledore had appointed her himself?

Though it was getting harder by the moment as Umbridge's questions really were starting to dig something out of the base of his skull that was beginning to build up quite a bit of pressure...

Trelawney kept up her curt replies as Umbridge then asked that she was the great-great-granddaughter of the renowned Seer Cassandra Trelawney?

Remus felt an odd smile flicker across his face as some old Greek myth came to mind about the Seer Cassandra who nobody believed truly was one, but he didn't point this out to the others for once as he was more invested hearing about this.

But she was the first in her family line to have inherited the gift of Second Sight?

Trelawney had to hesitate for a moment before saying these things tended to skip, err, three generations.

"Was the pause because she had to think about it and count that on the spot?" James mocked.

Umbridge was clearly not impressed as she made a few notes of this, and then looked on and asked for a prediction to be made.

Trelawney was outraged at once, saying the Inner Eye did not See upon command!

James was almost amused by this, as normally Trelawney spat out so many predictions in a lesson you couldn't shut the woman up. Now Umbridge was asking for one, and that was offensive?

Umbridge shrugged with indifference as she went to make a note of this, but then Trelawney wildly switched to grasping at the pink cardigan, apparently overcome with the fear of what she was seeing, a dark peril looming...

"I think she made herself worse by doing that," Sirius sighed. "Should have just stuck with the first thing she said, then later and a lot more randomly spouted something at least generally more threatening than that generic mess."

Dolores Umbridge was in grave danger!

Umbridge raised an unimpressed brow and ticked off something before saying that would be all.

Lily actually had to catch herself to stop from laughing. Even knowing Trelawney was a true Seer still didn't make this waffle intimidating in the least, but she despised Umbridge too much to agree with her on any level so she held it in.

She turned away and began asking some students questions, while Trelawney stalked over to Harry and snatched his dream diary away, proclaiming in a carrying voice for all to hear that even his most mundane dreams were filled with fortunes of his death.

"Yeah, there it is," James said tartly, least she could always fall back on that one, though how she managed to make that less believable every time was an actual achievement on some level.

Harry was having a hard time feeling sympathy for her during this, and when they were finally released and entered Umbridge's own class, the woman was humming.

"Urgh, having to listening to croaking all lesson, I'd rather live with a cicada," Sirius rubbed at his ears in thought.

They took their seats in the back and pulled out their books, while the teacher instructed those hopeful few who'd left their wands out not to do this very thing.

"I'm not sure if that's ignorance or delusions," Remus sighed.

They were to begin chapter two now.

Still smiling to herself, she set about some papers on her desk. Harry began flipping mindlessly through until the thought occurred to him if there were enough chapters to keep this going all year, and he was just flipping to check on that when he noticed Hermione's hand raised again.

"So were there?" Lily asked.

"Don't know, never checked," Harry shrugged.

"Even if there weren't, I'm honestly wondering if she'd have just made you reread it from the start or something," Remus rolled his eyes.

Umbridge took a different approach this time and approached her instead, bending down on her level as Hermione told she'd already read chapter two.

When Umbridge told her to go on to the next one then, Hermione stated she'd read the whole book.

"Man I wish I was more surprised, actually I'm just sad for the wasted time," James sighed.

Umbridge looked mildly surprised as she then asked Hermione what the author had said about counter-jinxes in chapter fifteen then?

Hermione gave the accurate answer at once, and Harry saw Umbridge was impressed against her will.

"People get that a lot around her it seems," Sirius mused, he didn't always like Hermione either, but she never failed to impress him with her knowledge at least.

Hermione kept going though, that she did not agree with Mr. Slinkhards interpretation of counter-jinxes and his statement they were only used as another form of jinx-

Umbridge cut her off this wasn't up for discussion.

"That was already established," Lily cocked her head to the side as she tried to understand, "what was the goal of her doing this?"

James shushed her and read quickly to find out, if anyone could find a way to push Umbridge's buttons and make something interesting happen in that class, he'd bet on Hermione.

Hermione tried to say something else, but Umbridge cut her off by taking five points from their house, while Harry demanded what for? Ignoring Hermione's warning for him not to get involved.

"She is sitting right next to you when she started this," Remus rolled his eyes, "don't tell me she really thinks you'd stay out of it."

Umbridge gave the answer for disrupting class pointlessly.

"She simply asked a question of what she was supposed to do now she's done with the work," Sirius tried for an innocent tone, ineffective as he wasn't likely to receive an answer for that anymore than Hermione.

She was going to teach them a Ministry-approved method that did not include inviting students to give opinions on things they didn't understand.

"Every bit of that was the most ludicrous thing I've yet heard her say," Remus said faintly.

"I particularly like the part they're not supposed to have opinions on what's being 'taught'," Sirius sneered.

"She read the whole book, how can she still try to make that claim!" Lily demanded.

"I'm beginning to wonder if there's something conceded about her," James said deadpan.

Their previous teachers, with the exception of Quirrell, would never have passed an inspection-

Harry cut off Quirrell had been great, except the fact that he'd had Voldemort's head sticking out of the back of his own.

"I'm actually wondering how many of the students knew that at the end of the year anyways," Remus suddenly blinked in surprise.

"Not the point," Harry grumbled.

Umbridge hardly acknowledge what he'd said except to give him another week of detentions.

Lily made a guttural, maddening noise of frustration for Harry suffering through that all over again, and she vented on the only person available. "Harry James, stop antagonizing her! It's clearly done you no good, after multiple people have warned you to stop, and you are suffering more consequences than doing any good!"

Harry flushed with anger for a moment, considered snapping back he was doing more good than anyone else was even bothering to try, but then considered the fact that snapping at her would achieve nothing. His mother was simply angry with the situation and he did not want to start yelling at them like he had been his friends in the past, so he simply held his tongue and nodded absently, also failing to mention whatever he did he couldn't go back and stop himself from doing it here now could he.

The first consequences of this came up at dinner that night, where Fred's prediction came true at once and Angelina caused such a racket with her yelling at him over having to miss another practice that McGonagall swopped in and interceded, taking points away at once for all the noise in the middle of the Great Hall. Several Ravenclaws at the table behind were still watching the show.**

Angelina wasn't deterred, saying he deserved it for another detention ruining her regime.

McGonagall turned sharp eyes on Potter, demanding who this detention was from, and very clearly displeased at the answer as she took another five points away.

"Who takes away house points after you find out someone has detention?" James demanded in outrage. "What's McGonagall playing at, he's already suffering enough for this!"

"I guess she did warn him not to continue messing with her," Remus sighed, "this is her way of punishing him for disobeying her as well."

"That did not make this feel better," Sirius scowled.

Harry tried to protest he was already being punished enough, but McGonagall wouldn't hear it, claiming detentions didn't seem to work on him so maybe this would.

"The worst part is she doesn't even know what's going on in those detentions," Lily groaned miserably, just begging for the sharp eyed woman to spot Harry's hand and raise hell for it any day now.

She warned them both to confine the shouting to the pitch before departing.

"I do love how she says confine shouting at Harry, not stop it," Sirius muttered.

Harry slammed into his seat beside Ron in a fuming mess as he demanded how it was fair he was getting his hand sliced open and losing points?!

"Maybe she wouldn't if she knew that part," James seethed.

Ron was sympathetic for him, saying she was out of order with that one.

"Are we really the only ones insisting on how dumb it is you haven't mentioned this," Lily demanded. "What about Hermione?"

"Still haven't told her yet either," Harry muttered as he shifted uneasily in his seat, still wishing this would stop being mentioned all together.

Hermione, however, merely rustled the pages of her Daily Prophet and said nothing.

"So she does know?" Remus yelped at this glossed over development.

"I guess Ron did tell her at some point," Harry blinked in surprise, he'd been too angry to realize what he was saying to whom at the time. "Honestly I'm just happy she didn't give me another go to Dumbledore speech, so I'm grateful I wasn't around when she did find out."

Nobody agreed with him, though clearly repetition wasn't doing any good regardless.

Harry snapped at her that he thought their head of house was in the right then?

Hermione answered cooly that she wished Harry wouldn't get points taken away, but she also wished he'd stop losing his temper around Umbridge.

"Hermione was the one who started the last two fights!" Sirius couldn't help but defend. "Harry more than likely would have sat in the back of the class and not said a word if it wasn't for her."

"You can't blame Harry's action on what Hermione decides to do," Lily scolded.

"Doesn't help one of his mates isn't trying to fix this problem either," Remus shrugged.

Harry did not speak to Hermione all through their next class, but all memory of the fight evaporated when he walked into Transfiguration and first spotted Umbridge instead of McGonagall.

James actually began wriggling in place in sudden excitement. If he'd put money on anyone giving that toad a run for her galleons it would be McGonagall, there was no way she could push her around like she just had to Trelawney.

The three watched almost eagerly as class began, McGonagall acting as if the extra woman wasn't even there as she instructed Dean to pass out homework, and Lavender to start handing out mice, and warning that vertebrate animals were much harder to-

Harry was distracted as he got his work back and saw he'd made an A.

"And that was with the minimal effort," James applauded, while Lily rolled her eyes at him even if she did agree.

Dean took his seat and mouse and was at once scolded for doing something to it that would wind him up in detention-

"What'd he do?" James demanded on the same breath as he'd finished.

"He was trying to place it on Parvati's shoulder," Harry shrugged.

"Less inventive than I was hoping," Remus sighed.

While Umbridge used the same, hem, hem, cough to try and get attention.

McGonagall turned cold eyes on her as Umbridge began that McGonagall had received the date and time of her inspec-

McGonagall coolly cut across of course she had, otherwise she'd be wondering why the woman was here.

James made a little squee noise when he was done with that response while Sirius was already full blown laughing, he knew McGonagall was his favorite teacher for a reason!

Harry and Remus shared a triumphant smile while Lily said impatiently, "James if you don't keep going, I will," though her eyes were sparkling with their own amusement for their old head of house.

James clutched the book to him protectively as he kept going with glee.

Then she kept going as if nothing had happened, even though Umbridge did the same act again not moments later.

McGonagall didn't even face her this time as she said sharply how Umbridge expected to get an idea of her teaching methods if she kept being interrupted, as she did not permit others to talk while she was.

James couldn't do it though, he immediately burst out laughing again, and this time Lily couldn't deny joining in. This was hardly the fiery pit they wanted to toss Umbridge into for what she'd done to Harry, but even seeing someone hold their own against her in this way was the most satisfying thing that had happened so far!

Umbridge looked as if she'd been slapped, before hastily turning to a fresh page and scribbling furiously.

"I would pay anything to get my hands on those notes," Sirius' grin was slipping past amusement right into evil. "See just what her version of, I need a burn healing charm looks like."

Looking supremely unconcerned, Professor McGonagall addressed the class once more.

Harry wasn't paying much attention to her warnings of the complexity of the larger the animal the harder it was to vanish, he was to busy whispering to his friends how she could get onto him about losing his temper when she wasn't acting much better. There was no anger though, as he grinned at McGonagall, all anger forgotten.

"Technically McGonagall hasn't gained a detention yet, so she's still doing better than you," Sirius smirked even as he was leaning forward eagerly to hear more of this.

At the end of the lesson, Ron was putting away only a wriggling tail,

"It is indeed a good mark he's already got the larger portion of the body by the end of the first day," James agreed absently, his eyes still eagerly hoping for more between Umbridge and McGonagall.

as they began to file out, but hung back when they realized Umbridge was going up to talk to McGonagall. She asked only one question, of how long she'd been at this post?

McGonagall said thirty-nine years in December.

Umbridge jotted this down before saying she'd receive her results in ten days.

McGonagall gave the curt reply of how she couldn't wait as she swept away.

"She really shouldn't act so thrilled, sets a bad impression," Remus snorted.

She barked at the three lingering at the door to get a move on, but Harry swore she smiled as she passed.

"Favorite teacher," James repeated warmly, hoping that would leave some kind of impact on Harry in Umbridge's next class. He wasn't the only one defying Umbridge.

Harry sadly turned up at his next class only to find Umbridge there again, already talking to Grubbly-Plank. She was being asked that this was not her standard position, to which the sub agreed she was only standing in for Professor Hagrid.

"I don't think anyone's yet called him that," Sirius' face crinkled as that registered.

"Does sound kind of weird, even if it is appropriate," Remus agreed.

Harry's spirits sunk as he watched Malfoy approaching as well, knowing he'd love nothing more than to gossip about Hagrid strait to the Ministry.

"He's already been doing that, surely he can't do even worse damage," Lily said with unease even she didn't believe.

Umbridge then asked if Grubbly-Plank knew anything of Hagrid's absence, but the woman was bare on the subject, saying she'd simply been asked to fill in for an unspecified time, she'd agreed, and here they were.

Umbridge waved for her to start the class then, and they continued their work on bowtruckles as Umbridge went around the class and began asking students about magical creatures, to which no one gave a flawed answer. Harry at least felt hopeful none of them were letting Hagrid down.

Remus couldn't help but wince for that, thinking that was far more likely luck depending on the questions she was asking.

Then Umbridge circled back to Grubbly-Plank, asking how a new staff member felt here? Supported, or more ostracized from the everyday crowd.

Grubbly-Plank gave the simple answer she'd always felt welcomed here, never had a problem.

Umbridge looked politely incredulous,

"That she's the only one being treated like scum? Can't imagine why that would be," Sirius snorted.

"I'm sure that's a look," James snorted, his liking for Grubbly-Plank going up somewhat. Sure she was having to stand in for Hagrid, but at least she wasn't going behind his back and trying to rub up to Umbridge, he could respect that.

She then switched to asking of reports she had from injuries in this class, but Malfoy enthusiastically stepped in then, saying that was done to him, he was attacked by a hippogriff.

"At his own stupidity," James emphasized. "Everyone seems to skip that bit!"

Umbridge began almost happily jotting this down, while Harry shouted over at them it was because Malfoy was being too stupid to listen to Hagrid before it happened.

"Oh, thank you Harry," James groaned, that hadn't been what he meant at all.

Harry shrugged without remorse.

Umbridge turned a pleased smile on him as she gave him another week of detentions.

"What was that one even for?" Lily all but screeched. "Doesn't she still have to give a reason!"

Baby Harry began squirming in unease underneath his toy so she forced herself not to keep going while James pushed on, mostly because the answer was no, that woman didn't have to give a reason to anyone about anything she did. It was becoming quite clear that was the scariest part of all to look forward to.

That evening, despite the late hour, Harry did not return to the common room empty this time, but found Ron and Hermione waiting up for him. Hermione seemed anxious at his visage as she pushed a yellow bowl towards him, telling him it was essence of murtlap and it would help.

Harry wasn't quite sure what that was, but when he put his hand, that was bleeding freely, into it it soothed the pain at once.

Ron still tried to push Harry should tell someone about this, McGonagall would do something, but Harry still wouldn't hear it, pointing out next thing they knew there'd be a decree that the person who questioned Umbridge would get fired.

"That would still cause enough of a stir in the community for it to be relevant and absolutely worth it," James tried to keep his voice even as he explained to Harry. "McGonagall's tough as they come, even if she did have to leave for a time she'd be right back the next day because Dumbledore would never let that stand, and he'd have support from those realizing how ludicrous this all is getting."

"Please tell me you've been seeing reports in the Daily Prophet about more people saying what a problem this is," Lily agreed.

Harry just shrugged though, Hermione only passed along very certain things, and she hadn't said anything about this. If the wider wizarding world did care about what was going on, he wasn't hearing about it.

Ron tried to think of some way to argue, but then closed his mouth back.

Hermione hissed what an awful woman she was, they really should do something about her.

"Tie her to the Whomping Willow?" Sirius suggested at once.

"Transfigure her into a cat and introduce her to Fang?" James smirked.

"Introduce her to the mermaids of the Black Lake," Remus said just a touch bitterly.

"See how long she could survive in the Forbidden Forest," Harry envisioned the fun.

"Poison?" Lily couldn't seem to stop herself tacking in much to all the boys amusement.

Ron had suggested poison,

"Ha!" Lily pumped a fist in triumph, "two against you lot!"

"That's fair," Sirius miraculously gave in.

"Can it at least be a slow acting one?" James contended.

"I can work that," Lily agreed.

but Hermione said she'd meant something more practical about her horrid teaching habits, how they weren't learning any Defence this year.

"Well I mean, she's not wrong," Remus snorted.

"Yet I don't really see how that's so different from your first two years either," Sirius sighed.

Ron couldn't see a way around this, she had the job and that clearly wasn't changing any time soon.

"At least until the end of the year," Lily still looked for that bright spot.

Hermione shot Harry a nervous look before beginning to tell what she was thinking today,

"Should I be worried that's how this is starting?" James looked bemused as he kept going.

that they should just learn DADA themselves.

"That's really not that far fetched an idea," Remus shrugged, "we had to do it a few years as well. Our teachers never got to the level of trying to kill us mind you, but they weren't all stellar either."

"I don't know, remember Novak? Considering how many spells he used backfired on himself, I think at some point that counts as attempted murder when he still encouraged us to trust him," Lily shrugged.

Ron scoffed at the idea of doing more extra homework, they were already behind as is.

Hermione said this was more important than homework.

"Hang on," Sirius mimed cleaning out his ears, "alright read that bit again."

James ignored him.

The boys goggled at her saying such blasphemy, Ron insisting she'd always said homework was the most important thing in the universe!

Hermione brushed them off for being silly,

"She had yet to say otherwise," Harry rubbed at his ear at all her remembered lectures.

stating this was about learning to defend themselves from what was out there.

Harry looked honestly bemused Hermione had taken his words to heart like that, no matter how much he still vouched for them being true.

Ron still wasn't on the idea, saying sure they could look up jinxes and practice them, but-

"Just like you did at the end of last year," James agreed, "that seemed to help you out loads, even with a competent if murderous teacher."

but Hermione said it would be all the better if they had a teacher, someone who already knew a boat load of spells and could correct them if they were doing it wrong.

Harry began if she was talking about Lupin,

"Naw, you're the first teacher he thought of Moony," Sirius chuckled.

"Shut up Padfoot," Remus said around a smile.

but Hermione at once said that wouldn't work, he couldn't come around often enough to be of help.

"Not with that Umbridge woman about anyways," Lily said grimly, as it had honestly been a good idea for a moment for Dumbledore to summon him to the castle at his random choosing, and just incidentally running into Harry and his friends, for a few hours, no one in the school would really question that too much if it had worked out that way. That pink frosted lump of dragon dung though would put a wrench into anything like that.

Harry couldn't imagine who else she was talking about, but then she said him of course.

Harry looked at his dad in bewilderment, before looking at the other three who all looked just as surprised at the answer as him to his relief.

"Honestly, for a moment there I thought she was leading up to herself," James snorted.

"I mean, I suppose she's not got the wrong idea," Lily pulled gently on a strand of hair as she thought about it, "but no offense love, I haven't really seen you with the patience yet to be teaching anyone much."

"Ron was better at teaching you chess than you were explaining how a phone worked," Sirius snorted in agreement.

"Oh stop picking on him," Remus scolded, though Harry hardly looked offended, he still had a politely puzzled expression on his face like he was still nursing the idea and had hardly heard them. "I don't find it a bad idea at all, Harry was the only thirteen year old I've ever seen to manage a Patronus, even you two hadn't managed that until fifth year to find out what you were going to turn into only a few months later. If Harry could master that, I'm sure passing that knowledge along wouldn't be much of a challenge."

"There's a difference between being a good student and being as good a teacher," Sirius shrugged, but he backed down altogether as Harry was starting to look a little hurt they were still giggling more than anything at the idea.

James kept himself going in hopes Hermione would come to some conclusion this should be more a group effort between the three than Harry starting secret lessons to teach these two anything.

Harry was stunned at the idea, turning to Ron for some backup, but he seemed just as keen on this as Hermione now she'd pointed it out.

Harry began laughing it off, saying what good would he do, while Hermione said in exasperation to think of all he'd done.

"Really Harry, you apparently spent all summer complaining about this bit, but you need this part explained," James rolled his eyes.

When Harry still didn't get their meaning, Ron started to laugh he didn't want someone this stupid teaching him, before beginning loudly of all his accomplishments, like second year killing the Basilisk and Riddle.

Harry tried to interrupt that had been Fawkes and-

"I really am loving the reverse of this conversation," Sirius gave a forced smile. "How are you the one saying you shouldn't get credit for doing this now, when it was you shouting at them you did all this single handedly to them at that house?"

Harry was scarlet by now, both from remembered shock of his friends throwing this at him, and how true that comment was that put on the spot he still didn't want to admit all the things he'd done no matter how angry he'd been he'd felt ignored.

"Can't have it both ways," Lily told him gently as she seemed to read his mind.

Ron completely ignored him and was still going on, coming up with fourth year and everything he'd done there as well, he and Hermione were smirking by the end as Harry felt his temper rising, he wasn't even sure where the anger was coming from.

"Actually neither am I," James frowned lightly from the book to Harry now. "At most they're still pulling your leg, what's the anger for?"

Harry brushed at his scar without comment, a deep look in his eyes that shot a thrill of fear through James instantly promising him he actually didn't want to know the answer, so he quickly moved on.

He began telling them how he'd blundered through all that, not because he was any good at Defence, he'd always had help and- stop laughing at him!

Remus let out a low whistle of surprise as he told Harry, "when you get angry, you really ramp yourself right to the top at once."

"Harry doesn't do anything halfway," Sirius said halfheartedly, Harry leaning back into the couch looking miserable he'd been caught shouting at them again, and they hadn't done anything even remotely close to deserving it this time.

He lunged to his feet so fast he knocked the essence of murtlap away, now practically shouting at them they didn't understand, none of that had been skill when he'd fought Voldemort, that Cedric had been just as good as him and he'd died so if they were insinuating he'd messed up and Harry had somehow done something better-

James had winced at every blow Harry dealt his friends, of all the pain and fear his son had suffered without anyone there to help, how even hearing it first hand hadn't quite left them with the reality Harry had lived through. To them it was all in a distant future, something they hoped never had to happen to him and so without underplaying the events happening they kept pushing past these terrible moments because it would ultimately help him to remember them just to find a way he'd never have to live through them. Most of all, James wanted more than anything for Harry never to have to witness what had happened in that graveyard, to Cedric.

Ron looked aghast Harry had come to the conclusion they were having a go at Cedric.

Harry was aware, and very grateful no one had snapped at him for this in here. He distantly saw himself doing these things, pushed into this uncontrollable anger from something he didn't understand, but one truth stood out his friends would never insinuate any such thing, so he was grateful for the silence ringing in here.

Hermione was near tears now as she insisted this was exactly the reason they needed to learn, he was the only one who had ever faced V-Voldemort.

"Well there's a distraction if ever there was one," Sirius blinked slowly to refocus off of Harry's anger, how everything he'd said had been all too real.

It was the first time Hermione had ever said Voldemort's name, and for some reason this calmed Harry. He sat back in his seat, his hand now throbbing worse than ever and gazed at the broken glass and essence of Murtlap now seeping into the carpet.

Hermione got her feet as if to go to bed, quietly asking him to just think about it.

Lily opened her mouth, wanting to say something in comfort as well as push for a change of subject, but Harry was still looking miserable and rubbing hard at his scar again, so she was afraid to push him while he was too vulnerable.

Harry nodded silent agreement now as she went off to bed, Ron following suit. Harry repaired the bowl with a quick spell, but could do nothing for more medicine for his hand.

"Wonder how she got hold of that," Sirius happily shot off, as always just looking for something to say in the awkward silence.

"She's too proud asking the house-elves for a batch," Remus played along, "I more imagine she might have asked Madam Pomfrey for some, given a vague reason as to why she wanted it."

"I'll buy that," Sirius said, looking hopefully at Harry like he was hoping for confirmation, but even if he had ever bothered to ask Harry spoke nothing for or against the idea.

He was more exhausted now than when he'd stepped in, but still he forced himself to climb up the stairs rather than sleeping in the common room, and had another restless night of dreams full of locked corridors, and waking to his scar prickling again.

Harry twitched harder than ever in his seat, his eyes swimming with pain as he yearned to understand how it all fit together, and terrified of learning the answer.

HPHPHPHPHP

I probably came off pretty anti-government in this chapter, and I swear I'm not actually trying to whip up a rebellion and start an anarchy, I just always found it really extreme that clearly since it's conception Hogwarts seemed to have stood as it's own body, but suddenly the government was stepping in and causing a ton of reforms, and the public seems generally okay with this? Of course the Daily Prophet likely didn't post more outrage than a couple people quitting, I don't even know how it would have been put into the narrative, I'd just have liked to see more people be confused and angry about this sudden regime change going on inside the most popular wizarding school in Britain.

*I was actually never very good at English, I have no clue what the actual answer was, thank you for nothing four years of high school.

**I pointed this out in the last book, but this is now a blatant mismatch of the house tables. Last time it was the Hufflepuffs on their other side as Harry had to walk past them, this time it's Ravenclaws? Someone must have been right in saying it does switch up on a regular basis.

[kathyprior4200]

Alastor and Rosie’s Cannibal Song

Alastor and Rosie strolled arm in arm after Rosie finished going to an Overlord meeting.

 “Hey Alastor,” said Rosie turning to him. “Have you ever considered joining my exclusive club of socialites?”

 “No, I haven’t…but do entertain me.”

 “It’s mainly me and my group of ladies. We meet up for tea and coffee at this nice café not too far from here. We discuss the latest news, perhaps exchange jewelry or deserts.”

 “Sounds lovely, my dear.”

 “Oh and here’s the best part. My group and I have…exquisite tastes when it comes to meals. And I’ve heard about you and your slaughters.”

 Alastor couldn’t help but puff up his chest in pride. “I was also a very skilled hunter in my other life. I’ve made many meals including jambalaya with venison in it. It is my favorite.”

 A grin of sharp teeth stretched across Rosie’s pale face, her black eyes shining. “Have you ever considered eating the flesh of your victims?”

 Alastor’s stomach growled at the thought. “I had a feeling that something was missing after I killed all those men as a human. I’ve hunted and ate deer and game many times. Perhaps I was too unsure about doing the same to other humans.”

 Rosie laughed. “No restrictions now, though. This is Hell. Feel free to eat whatever…and whomever you’d like.”

 Rosie handed him a blue arm of a nearby dead demon. Alastor maneuvered it into his mouth and sliced it to bits with several noisy bites.  The sharp fangs effortlessly tore through the muscle and bone. The tangy taste of blood and juicy meat filled his mouth before he swallowed.

 “That was quite tasty,” he remarked, licking his lips. Alastor then realized something extraordinary: there were countless demons roaming around in Hell. It was as if Hell had decided to provide him with an all-you-can-eat buffet. Not only would he have more meat to eat, but being a cannibal would also help with his fearsome reputation. Cannibalism was considered one of the worst taboos to do on Earth.

 Why not add another sin to his list?

 Alastor bowed and kissed Rosie on her hand in thanks. “Even in death, I learn something new every day. I’d be honored to join you.”

 Rosie introduced Alastor to her group of friends: a bunch of demon women dressed in fancy Victorian dresses of many colors and round ladies’ hats on their heads. Violet, Lavender, and Poppy were some of their names. For a brief moment, Alastor felt like he was back in his time period on Earth. He ate demon meat to his heart’s content. Hell-Born or sinner, raw or cooked, it didn’t matter. He used the flesh and the sinner’s hearts in his jambalaya recipes. As the sinners had previously been human like Alastor used to be, he was now a cannibal.

 The thought of someday tasting actual humans in the living world made his mouth water more.

 On Sunday mornings after Alastor had coffee, he would be greeted by his new admirers while he walked outside, humming a cheery tune.

 “Hello ladies,” Alastor said with a tip of his red top hat.

 “Hello Alastor!” they chimed, as they sat on the ground in front of a mutilated body of a demon. One woman picked up the demon’s separated arm and used it to wave at him. Alastor chuckled and strolled on.

 During one moonlit night, Alastor and Rosie decided to sing a song to strengthen their bond. They were already good friends, if not that then at least compatible associates with similar tastes.

 “Let’s say you’re bored and want to be full,” Rosie began as she walked next to him, umbrella in her hands and little skulls on her hat. She looked like a gaunt Mary Poppins entering a Day of the Dead musical.

 “Sure, you can go about your day, dull. Or…”

 She turned around, her lavender dress spinning slightly. “You can eat a little flesh fantastic with me.”

 Alastor’s red eyes lit up, his hidden deer tail wagging underneath his crimson dress coat. He already loved her singing voice and graceful form. She reminded him of Mimzy, though she was less about the spotlight and more about elegance.

 And speaking of which…

 “Alastor!” Mimzy beamed as she walked over to him. The chubby blonde woman was wearing a magenta flapper dress with sparkles on it. Her headband had a pink feather attached to it and her necklace of black pearls was visible above her round breasts.

 “Good evening, Mimzy!” Alastor smiled. “What are you doing out here, dear?”

 “My shift at the jazz club just ended, so I decided to join you guys.” A pink neon sign down the street read “Mimzy’s Place.”

 “Please do, Miss Hannigan,” Rosie said to her fellow friend. Alastor had introduced Mimzy to Rosie after the two sinners had reunited. “Be sure not to walk home by yourself, Mimzy. You might be dead, but there’s no need to die a second time.”

 “Isn’t that right!” Alastor added with a chuckle.

 “Now where was I…” Rosie pondered. “Oh right!”

 She began to sing again.

 “You can eat a little flesh fantastic with me.”

 “Wait, flesh?” Mimzy asked, curious. “As in human flesh?”

 “Why yes! I just tasted it for the first time,” Alastor said. “Apparently, it’s a delicacy down in Hell for obvious reasons. “I mean…”

 He began to sing, “If you live your days in wonder, but can’t focus due to hunger…”

 He leaned his face in close to hers; Mimzy blushed and didn’t even flinch.

 “Just eat a little flesh fantastic with me.”

 Alastor straightened back up as Rosie joined in. “For if you decide to kill a person, their body will someday rot away. But if you make haste and not let it go to waste…”

 Rosie spun around a black nearby pole before lightly landing on the sidewalk.

 “Then you’ll be satiated for the day!”

 Alastor climbed up and leaned against the pole. “You don’t need to be Lector Hannibal, to consider the life of a cannibal.”

 “Want to be robust?” Rosie asked.

 “You know I must,” Alastor added.

 Then they both sang to Mimzy, “Come eat a little flesh fantastic with us!”

 The two tall demons strolled along as Alastor snapped his fingers. His shadowy demon imps rose from the ground, playing trumpets, drums and saxophones. Nearby demons where either swaying to the jazz beat or darting away in fear. Mimzy ran on her short stubby legs to catch up.

 “Hey, wait up! Can I sing, too?”

 Rosie led out a shrill bird-like call from her mouth as her eyes briefly glowed silvery white.

 “My fellow epicureans, answer my call. May your gluttonous desires led the way!”

 At once, several ladies dresses came out of the alleyways to join her. There were also a few male demons in elegant suits who followed them.

 “Welcome to the club, Radio Demon,” Rosie grinned.

 Rosie and Alastor then sang the duet at the same time:

 “The life of a cannibal

The feeling is so wonderful

Hunt and kill, munch, munch, munch,

A few screams later, you’ve got your lunch!”

 Behind them, the women danced in a line, their dresses spinning as they moved. The men in suits and top hats spun, flipped and did tricks from the poles of nearby street lamps. The red flames in the glass on top of the lamps flickered to the outside music.

 “Have some style and show some class

It is us among the mass

When you’re feeling beat and want to eat

A demon can never have too much meat!”

 “Eat a little flesh fantastic with us

Give in to another kind of lust

A sweet treat you are, come near or far

Our food as you bite the dust!”

 Rosie smiled as she and Alastor did a Charleston dance in the front. Rosie winked at Mimzy who stood in awe of their dancing. She tried to hide her jealousy. Every time Alastor danced with someone else, the sin of envy took hold of her in a tight grip.  Rosie continued:

  “You can refrain and boldly exclaim

‘Eating your brethren’s not right!’”

 Alastor added:

“But we know well, to maim in Hell

The blood will be shed tonight!”

 Rosie blew into a bloodstained shell trumpet. The men and women dancers surrounded the trio in a moving circle, chanting “Eat! Eat! Eat!” as the jazz music sped up. Their dancing shoes tapped against the asphalt, adding to the instrumental sounds. The women took off their hats and waved them several times in the air before putting them back on their heads. The men repeated their actions shortly after.

 Alastor held out his hand for Mimzy to take, which she eagerly did with a smile. The three of them danced around in a circle, laughing as Alastor’s glowing red spirits swirled around above them.

 “The life of a cannibal,” Mimzy began…

“The feeling is so wonderful,” Rosie added…

“Hunt and kill, munch, munch, munch…” Alastor sang.

 Then all three of them called out, “A few screams later, you’ve got your lunch!”

“Eat a little flesh fantastic with us!”

(oh- oh- oh- oh- oh)

“Eat a little flesh fantastic with us!”

(oh- oh- oh- oh- oh)

 The men did more rolls on the floor and posed on the lamppost poles. Nearby, an elaborate black fountain was spraying blood into the larger basin. A lone demon kid tossed a soul coin into it.

 After the men spun around on the poles, they hopped back down to dance with the ladies in the background.

 The song soon ended with Rosie, Alastor and Mimzy doing happy poses on the street, Alastor in the middle between his best lady friends. As the trio bowed, audience clapping emitted from his microphone staff. Everyone cheered as they summoned long flaming spears into their hands. They twirled them around in their hands and tossed them into the air before catching them. Soon, all of them were surrounding Rosie, who posed on a pole with her closed umbrella pointing outward in her hand.

 “Go forth and feast!” Rosie called.

 The eyes of the men and women glowed red in hunger. Like a pack of wolves, the other demons scurried in every direction, prancing on other demons.  Several of the men threw their spears at nearby demons, setting them on fire as they screeched. Nearby denizens screamed as the fancy ladies jumped onto them and sank their sharp teeth into their necks and shoulders. Blood and organic fluid soon littered the street and sidewalks. Mimzy giggled and wrote on a nearby brick wall in fresh blood. She drew a red heart with “A + M” inside it. She even added an arrow through the heart.

 “Very nice,” Alastor mentioned. “A and M. That reminds me, I gotta get ready for my 6 AM announcement tomorrow. I’ll be broadcasting how to make spicy jambalaya. All natural ingredients, of course.”

 Mimzy picked up a pulsing heart from inside the gaping chest of a fallen demon.

 ”You might need this for an ingredient.”

 She gave it to Alastor, who took it in both hands.

 “You’re giving me your heart, what a thoughtful gift!”

 Alastor and Rosie chuckled and Mimzy smiled, too. Though deep down, she hoped he was only kidding about actually eating her heart.

 Alastor took several bites of the muscle, red thick liquid coating his face. The flavor was divine.

 Mimzy tried a bite out of chunk of flesh from another demon. It tasted like older pork, human flesh that had gotten a bit dry and flavorless. Alastor soon recognized the taste of demon flesh as well after eating some more.

 “I’m just gonna pretend it was pork,” Mimzy said, uncertainty in her face.

 “Come on, we all know you enjoyed it,” Alastor teased, playfully pinching her cheeks.

 “There is one thing that is better than flesh,” Mimzy declared.

 “And what’s that, dear?” Rosie asked, wiping her bloody mouth with a lacy handkerchief.

 “Spending time with my lovely friends!”

 Mimzy gave Alastor a hug and Alastor flinched a bit. He took a deep breath and briefly hugged her as well. Rosie knew not to touch Alastor, so she opted to stand supportively by his side.

 Alastor then pulled the two smiling women close to him, happy and in his element. It was something that he agreed with as well, somewhere within his blackened heart. Despite doing things for himself and manipulating people for his amusement, there was something…freeing about being with fun-loving friends he could put some degree of trust in. The sounds of music pulsed like vibrant lights in a sea of darkness. Music had been his oasis, his escape on Earth. Even in Hell, it still tugged at his heartstrings and reminded him of innocent times long ago. It was almost like a beacon of hope…hope of even greater things ahead.

 For the first time in a while, Alastor’s smile was genuine and relaxed.

 “Now that’s what I call entertainment!”

[mercysought]

@ourpyrrhicvictory / @morsvmordre​  : ( DANCE ) leaning in closer while they are slow dancing with mine. but I changed it to be him asking her to dance // SEDUCTION ( accepting! )

Maxima almost snorts at the request; it is a half choked thing as her eyebrows arch in surprise, her face turning to face him, long wavy brown hair falling down her shoulder. Dark eyes find him, the look of hurt just by the glance, the snort. Could he blame her? He had never of course tried to play any of his tricks on her, but she heard about the way that he treated other hufflepuffs. How he treated some of the people of Gryffindor. She had heard about the incident with Professor Alastor and with Harry Potter, in this same courtyard. And while Parkinson seemed to be completely off the picture in this second, she had been holding onto his arm the whole ball. er own colleagues had left, as had her date. The courtyard was empty besides them, the rest of the students making their way to their respective dorms.

There is only a very faint line that separates Hufflepuffs from Slytherins. They are both loyal to the core to those that surround them, but one isn’t afraid to jump the fence and cut the line in order to get where they want to go, to hail each other up towards success. The others choose not to. The end of the road was always the same, however: success. Maxima, however, always did enjoy to tip toe along that line. And perhaps that was the reason why he had never tried anything to her or the people that were often seen around her. Because of her name, because of how popular she was, because others had tried to step on her heels and the end result was not what they had first expected.

   “Well, this is unexpected.” she finally answers after a couple of minutes. Surprising, perhaps was more fitting. She hadn’t expected him to really do anything other than watch. And he had done plenty of that throughout the night, plenty of that throughout this year in particular. You could call her cocky, but she was also right “If you wanted to dance with me, you should have asked me during the ball.“ 

Dark green eyes narrow and she gives him a smile, curled at the edge and cutting. But he wouldn’t have done that now would he? Not in front of everyone, not when she was a Hufflepuff, not with Pansy on his arm. Would he? This was an invitation: if you want to play this game you have to play them by my rules. 

And her rules were simple and easy to follow when it came to retaining her interest. She would not be asked to dance where there no lights, where there was no public. She would not be kept in the shadows because of another’s odd sense of shame or whatever it was. Others had done plenty to try and get her attention. Draco was good looking, one of the best students, but so were others. 

   “Actually, you should have just asked me to go with you to begin with.“ would she have said yes? Perhaps that was another question and theme all together. Her head tilts to the side and the long waves sway in the cold breeze. This would either shatter his ego or spur him to actively do something about it. Holding her interest was a thing of pride, and so one must earn it. And he hadn’t. Perhaps Parkinson and the other girls and boys in his House fell head over heels his bad boy behaviour. Maxima did not. It was easy to act aloof and to be rude, and nothing from her came easy. 

Green eyes watch him over once again, seeing how light hair fell over his forehead and the light drew harsher edges “Have a good night, Malfoy.“

[sparrowrye]

Demi Demon || Alastor x Reader, A2 part 17

Synopsis: It’s been over a year since we were brought under Alastor’s watchful eye. We’ve unlocked our Demonic powers, discovered our own talents, and began building the Safe Haven with Charlie and co. Alastor seems increasingly interested in the power we hold as one and intends to use it properly.

Previous part

Part 17: now what?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Holy Hell toots, you kissed the big scary Radio Demon?" Angel came bursting through the healer's front door.

I casted wind to slam it shut behind him and made myself bigger with my wings extended. "How the hell do you know?"

"I overheard Alastor and Husker arguing," he answered, slightly taken aback at my display.

I turned away from the white and pink Demon and ran my claws along my head, the tips clicking against my horns. Vivian was at my side with a hand on my back. She, Vilcin, and Althea had just managed to coax the same revelation out of me before Angel came in.

"Is this a bad thing?" he asked.

"Yes it's a bad thing!" I spun to face him again. "I got manipulated! I fell for it. I fell for his stupid trick. And I knew what he was doing and fell for it anyways."

"How do you know it was a trick?" He held his hands up in mock surrender. "I mean, maybe he was actually serious."

"Because I saw his memory." I sat in one of the soft chairs and dropped my head in my hands. "I saw him talking to Rosie about how our connection was getting stronger. And how if it was strong enough then I could control my magic and he could feed off it."

"Oh."

There was a moment of silence. I then stood up and paced in a circle at wicked speed. "I'm so angry! At him and at myself." I let out a struggled noise and pulled at my hair. "I thought I was getting better!"

"Was that the only memory you saw?" Althea asked. My trio of friends stood near each other still, unsure of how to help me. "Perhaps that was a memory that happened awhile back. Maybe he has had a change of heart since then."

"He's the fucking Radio Demon. He's not capable of loving anyone." I knew I spoke lies as soon as it had come out. I went silent and fell into the chair again. He loved his mother and sister dearly. Maybe after so many years of living without them, he had forgotten how to love someone.

"Hey." Althea knelt beside me, a gentle hand on my leg. Her green hair was a stark contrast with the dark flooring; it naturally drew my eyes to her. "Maybe anyone can learn. Even him."

"You learned how to love Reagan," Vivian chipped in. Her lamb ears swayed as she moved to kneel on the other side of me. "You were a brutal ring fighter. But now you love and dote on all the children."

"Maybe you should look further in his memories," Althea suggested, "see if there's any other conversations. Feel what he's feeling. It's the least he can let you do."

"I don't know."

There was a long moment of silence.

"So what'd it feel like?" Angel asked.

****

"This woman doesn't know how to stay off my nerves." Alastor rubbed his aching forehead. After my disappearance into the haven, he paid Rosie another visit.

"Love isn't trifling," she answered. "I must say though, I'm not sure why she's different than your other female acquaintances. You've never not hit it off with a lady before."

"She's not your typical woman, I suppose." He leaned his chin on the back of his hand and stared off at the window. "Her attitude has always been a problem. Perhaps it comes from her experience."

"She was a caged animal for most of her life," Rosie agreed, taking a sip of the hot tea she made. Alastor had yet to touch his.

"I have done what I can to show I enjoy her company. Why does she not believe me?"

"You two didn't have the greatest of relationships at first," she pointed out, "Not to mention everything she had to deal with when it came to mind magic and her curse."

"Yet our relationship has changed significantly in the past year. It's...annoying," he lifted a single claw from the armchair, "that she rejected my advance when she herself wasn't showing signs of distaste." He paused, eyes flickering up to Rosie's briefly before looking back at the window. "Perhaps my performance was lacking."

Rosie let out a laugh, causing him to pin his ears back in a growl. "Oh goodness, Alastor, I don't think that's the case. If it makes you feel any better, it doesn't seem like she has much experience in that field either."

It did make him feel slightly better. "I'm unsure how to move forward from here."

"She likes honesty." Rosie calmed her laughing and, putting her cup down, walked over to Alastor's chair. "Perhaps it's time you let her into that green mind of yours," she gently poked the side of his head and he leaned away. "Let her see how you truly feel."

He sank further into the chair. "This is stupid."

"This is love, darling."

"Surely this isn't how things typically go."

"You two aren't very typical, nor is your situation."

He tapped his claws. "Blast this woman," he mumbled.

****

By the time my cravings came back, I wasn't ready to deal with Alastor just yet. I had spent two days in Althea's healer hut just to avoid him. On the second day the cravings hit hard and I was curled in a ball for most of the day. Our deal had ensured that I wouldn't be able to live without his blood, without him. I had been tricked again.

Veins squeezing painfully tight, I trudged up the hill to the house. I felt his presence long before I touched the door and slammed it shut.

"Alastor!" I yelled for him. He manifested in the living room a moment later.

"You called." He wore his usual wicked smile.

"I'm still angry at you but the cravings came back," I stated, immediately getting down to business. I had a hand on my chest, nails digging painfully into my skin.

"I understand, darling." He leaned his cane against the fireplace and rolled up his jacket sleeve and the one underneath it. How many layers did he need? "Do accept my apology on the matter."

"Not yet." I buried the fear that was threatening to choke me as I crossed the room.

"I understand." He nodded, offering his exposed arm. He was being uncharacteristically cooperative, but maybe he was trying to make amends. My mouth began to water at the prospect of his sweet blood.

I slowly grabbed his wrist and summoned all the anger I could to bite down harshly. He let out a grunt as my teeth pierced his skin. His black blood soothed the itching in my throat and my veins slowly stopped seizing. My anger died as my body relaxed.

He grabbed my opposite shoulder and pulled so my back was against his chest. My teeth were still in his skin as he pressed that arm harder into my mouth, effectively pinning my head against him. His other arm was around my torso so my claws couldn't reach up to do any damage. I tried yelling but my jaw remained locked in place.

"Now that you're silent, it is my turn to speak." His voice was light but firm. "I understand you are angry with me because you believe I am manipulating you. To a degree, you were correct." I bit down harder and it caused him to wince. "But I understand now that I was merely fooling myself. I greatly enjoyed dancing with you that night. I find myself wanting to be around you all the time. And it infuriates me that Lucifer has permission to look through your mind while I am not allowed to do more than touch you. Even that one is debatable."

Without warning, his presence wrapped around mine and pulled me in his mind. Memories popped up in front of me. Memories of him watching me, close or from afar. I could see myself watching the children on the shore, tending to a crying child, talking with my friends, and reading by the fire after our afternoon sessions.

He also showed his actions that I never saw. Actions like soothing a nightmare after the soul shadow incident or attempting to touch my shoulder or back, but retracting it a second later. I saw the night we danced and felt a strange mix of nervousness and comfort. He looked briefly at my lips right before we kissed.

I blinked back to the dim living room. I had long stopped drinking his blood and now spit and blood were dripping off my chin.

"I am quite infatuated by you. I have grown accustomed to your presence, and dare I say I am not sure how to live comfortably without it. You send a thrill up my spine." He used magic to send warmth up my back as a visual. "I ask that you believe me when I say I want to be closer with you."

The confession left me dumbfounded. Everything was still and the only sound came from my breath on his skin. I could feel his chest rise and fall on the backside of my head. Did he always breathe that fast?

Eventually, I tugged my arm out and he finally released me. I took my teeth out of his skin and turned to face him. He grimaced at the sight of his spit covered arm and used magic to clean it up. I did the same with my chin.

"I don't know how to feel," I admitted, his ears quirked back. "I just...I don't..." I rubbed my arm and watched one of my foot claws scratch the carpet. Poor Niffty was always fixing the holes I was putting in it.

He bowed low like the night we danced. "Then I will allow you the time and space to think." His shadow melted with him and he slipped back up to his room. The room felt colder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note:

Nooooo, but I want him to be closer not further away