When Demons Walk Amongst Us

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Warner Bros, Bloomsbury. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Once again many thanks to Periculum for her beta work. Without her I’m sure everyone would be out for my head.

Chapter Two.
As Harry stated names, much to the amazement of his friends and family from back home, each of the beings shimmered into focus within the room. K'lal, being the first, had the most time to assess the others within the room and focused immediately on the dark magic rolling off two of the men. As the last of those called materialized into the room, he threw a fireball in their direction and was surprised when it met a woven fire and ice shield. Looking down at his son, he growled, only to have the young man growl back at him in anger.
Not bothering to lower the shield until his father’s temper had cooled slightly, Harry turned to Anya. “And this would be the reason why I didn't want to introduce them, until after I had talked to K'lal. If Tyson picked up on the Dark Mark as quick as he did, I have no doubts that Father would have as well.”
“And here I thought you were just avoiding the subject all together,” Tylan laughed.
“Yeah well, it would have been nice if I had been allowed to explain it to both sides without anyone losing their tempers,” Harry grumbled, lowering the shield but keeping his eyes on the Demon Lord.
“Dark Marks? You brought servants of the Cursed One into my school?” Anya demanded, outraged, glaring between Harry and Albus.
Sliding his eyes over to the Headmistress, Harry barely suppressed another growl when he saw a hint of fang peeking out of Anya's mouth. “Control yourself, Headmistress! No harm will come to anyone within this school. They are not the servants you think them to be.”
Calming down slightly, Anya sat back in her chair and narrowed her gaze on Harry, who still sat on the floor at Snape's feet. “You trust them?”
“With my life!”
“And you will vouch for them while they remain in this school?”
“One hundred per cent. Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy are both honorable men, who have risked their lives many times as spies for the light.”
“Very well then. Gentlemen, you both have my apologies. I take the safety of my school seriously. On the other hand, I must also remember that Harry would not risk anyone around him, and trust his judgment.”
“Your apologies are unnecessary, Madam,” Lucius stated calmly, while Severus inclined his head briefly.
“Good then, that's settled. Is it safe for me to move, or must I defend them once again from any more attacks?” Harry asked, sending a glare towards K'lal.
A musical laugh sounded as Azera conjured herself a chair made out of ice and sat down. “No, Ishal, I do believe that you have made your point abundantly clear.”
“Thank you, Lady Mother. Then perhaps we can get down to business once again,” Harry replied and stood smoothly, moving over to reclaim his chair.
“Yes, of course. Let’s get the children settled and perhaps they can be given a tour. Maybe by these three students?” Albus questioned, knowing that the conversation to follow would be hard for Harry to take.
“Of course, Albus. I have gone over the transcripts you had sent over earlier, so that I had a clear idea on where to place them all. I found it best to enroll all of them into the sixth year here. I'm sure it won't take them long to catch up with the other students, and Fred and George will fit in perfectly with them as well,” Anya stated.
Harry's head snapped up from where it had been resting against the back of the chair and his eyes grew wide in horror. “Are you insane, Anya? I know that Albus is off his rocker, but I honestly thought you had more sense than that.”
“Whatever are you going on about, Ishal?” Iris asked in confusion.
Harry wasn't paying any attention to her. Instead, he had taken up pacing across the length of the room, muttering to himself in a mixture of five languages, and finally settled on Parseltongue as he ranted.
“ISHAL!” Bane demanded. “Would you please explain to us, in a language more than just you can understand, what exactly has you so worked up?”
Harry turned and looked at his older brother, before glancing at the others in the room. “I had forgotten that you were not here when I introduced the others.” Taking a deep breath, he continued. “Anya has just decided to put the Weasley twins in the same year as the Masterson triplets.”
Haze's eyes grew round in dismay before turning on Anya. “How could you?” he whined.
“I fail to see what the problem is, Mr. Potter,” Severus drawled.
“Let me put this in terms that everyone will understand. Anya has just combined the Marauders of Hogwarts with the Marauders of Haven.”
Anya went pale, Snape's mask dropped, Lucius twitched and Albus twinkled. All in all Harry was most satisfied with the results of his little announcement. In the silence that followed, Harry looked over to see the twins and the triplets looking at each other in glee, while Ginny, Ron and Draco tried to contain their smiles.
Looking at the clock, Harry then looked over at the triplets. “There are three extra rooms in the dorm. If you three would be kind enough to show these guys where to go and give them a brief tour before dinner, I would greatly appreciate it.”
Tylan smiled warmly at Harry before standing, once more slipping into the names that they used outside of a warded room. “Of course, Jamie, we would be delighted.” Linking her hands around the arms of the Weasley twins, she directed everyone out the door, talking all the way. “I’m sure you will all love it here, although it will come as a huge shock. I was positively appalled when Jamie first explained the House system you all have at Hogwarts. Here we are not kept away from the others the same way, as all students in single year share the same dorms...” Her voice faded away as the door closed behind them.
Harry sighed softly as he turned back to the adults and gave Albus a small smile. “Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're here, and it's wonderful to see the others once again, but why are you here?
“Straight to the point, my boy,” Albus chuckled softly, glad that Harry had not changed too much. “A few weeks ago, Severus and Draco were both found out as spies. Lucius managed to get them out before permanent damage could occur, but in the process he blew his own cover. The last piece of information that they were able to bring out was Riddle's plans to draw you out of hiding.”
“And those plans are what, exactly?” K'lal demanded to know.
“It seems Riddle was going to actively seek out and kill those closest to Harry. It was deemed safer to bring them here for protection rather than leaving them in England.”
Harry had gone pale by the end, only to flush with the beginnings of anger. “Who decided? Were there other options, other than here, or did you just tell everyone without giving them a choice? I warn you now, Albus, I will not allow anyone to stay unless they are here by their own free will!”
“ISHAL!” Azera exclaimed, horrified at the accusation.
“No, no, My Lady, he has a point. Throughout his life, I had been making decisions of this sort on Harry’s behalf without consulting with anyone else,” Albus placated, “but I guarantee that everyone here but Severus and the Malfoys, has been given a choice on what to do. I also had the agreement of their parents, after I had explained the matter to them.”
Before Harry could react to this statement, Snape placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “Relax. I knew the moment I woke up from Poppy's care that I would be coming here. In fact if Albus had not ordered it, I would have suggested it myself.”
Lucius also wanted to reassure the young man. “Severus is correct. As soon as I was told where we were going, I understood that it was the safest place for us. Mr. Potter, we may not have gotten along with each other before, but I do understand the best way through this, for both myself and my son, is to be at your side.”
Grumbling slightly under his breath, Harry nodded his head in understanding. “Alright,” he agreed, “now we just need to figure out how to keep the two of you occupied during your stay.”
“Don't worry, Harry, I'm sure we'll find something for them to do while they’re here,” Anya grinned at him.
Sending a quick glare her way, he almost growled once again at her amusement but gave it up as a lost cause. “I’m not going back as a full time student, Anya.”
“Oh, don't be such a worrywart! I wouldn't do that to you.”
“As you say, Anya. Just giving you a friendly warning.”
Twin sets of tinkling laughter that sounded more like a playful breeze dancing among the trees caught the attention of all the adults. “Ishal, our dear brother, you do realize that if she does make you go back to being a full time student, we would just steal you away and teach you everything that they didn't want you to learn, yes?” Shay commented, while Jedzia gave the 'they' in question an evil grin.
Bane, catching on, gave the girls a mockingly blank look, and glanced over at Haze. “Aren't we already doing that?”
Playing along with the others, Harry cast a fearful look at the adults and whined to his brother. “Baaane, we promised we wouldn't mention that.”
Unable to keep it up once Snape smacked Harry upside the head, Haze broke down in helpless laughter and the others shared an amused glance before joining him.
Albus allowed Harry's carefree laughter to wash over him, and knew he had made the right choice to send him here. He had, after last summer, feared that he would never hear it again. Clearing his throat softly, he sent a fond smile at his young charge. “Harry, my boy, perhaps you can explain to us how you became a family with these wonderful people.”
The laughter immediately died, and Harry's eyes became shuttered as he curled himself up in his chair. His siblings didn't even think before moving to surround him with gentle touches, letting him know that they were there. Severus, seeing his distress, also laid a calming hand at the nape of the young man's neck and gently started rubbing. A faint whisper of sound from Iris had Harry nodding, and without dislodging Snape's hand, he moved so he was lying with his head on the arm closest to the Potions Master.
Clearing her throat, and drawing attention away from Harry, Iris started the story. “When Harry first came here, he had only one thing on his mind: find a way to destroy the evil that plagued his life. Days turned into weeks, and during that time he rarely left the Library. No one really questioned it, until one day when he was walking through the woods, and he collapsed. I found him, shortly after, and I knew that if I had ignored my feelings that something was wrong, I never would have found him in time to save him.” She paused.
“What had happened?” Albus questioned.
“He was dying. He had started out having headaches, which progressed to being unable to eat or sleep, and finally his magic just refused to support his body any longer. The only thing that was keeping him even remotely on his feet was the fact that if he died he needed to take the Cursed One with him.”
The hand slowly giving comfort to Harry stopped, and with a low growl he swept the young man out of his chair and into his lap. “Why, Harry?”
Dull green eyes looked up at him, filling with tears. “I didn't know, Sir. Honestly, I was trying to kill myself, and it wasn't until I woke up with Shay and Jedzia lying on either side of me that I realized something was wrong,” he answered quietly, his voice hitching as he tried to swallow back the tears.
“Can you tell us what was wrong with him, Lady?” Lucius asked.
“Ishal?” Iris questioned, and only received a nod of the head in response. Sighing softly, she continued. “I had my healers go over him, but nothing was showing up with the scans. We were slowly losing him, a little more with each hour that passed, and I finally decided to call in help,” she said, motioning to Azera and K'lal. “After they examined him, we still could find nothing wrong, and with his magical levels falling quickly, we knew we had to do something fast. It was decided that we needed to boost his levels, but as we are not human, the only way to do so was to adopt him to our blood, and then use the bond formed to bolster his magic with our own.” Conjuring a glass of honey mead, Iris took a few sips and motioned for Azera to continue, while keeping a careful watch on her brother and the man he was curled around.
Picking up the tale, Azera leaned forward in a bid to gather everyone's attention. “What you must realize is that for us to boost his magic we had to share our blood. Blood, no matter what kind, records a Being’s history. Everything that they are is recorded within it, you but have to be able to 'read' it. With our blood we gave Harry our history, customs, and language; We also gave him the building blocks needed to secure whatever talents he received from us and the knowledge that our children are given in their early years. In the reading of his blood we found out his history. Everything that was done to him, every obstacle that he was forced to overcome, much too early in his young life. And much to our joy and horror, we found out what was wrong with him.”
K'lal, knowing this part would be the hardest for the ladies to tell, waved Azera to silence. “When a traumatic experience happens to someone, they automatically seek out the one thing that will help keep them balanced. In Harry's case the balancing force was the one place that could ever be called home. When the decision was made to move him here, he once again lost his 'balance', even though it was his own choice to make. What he didn't realize was that his soul had also taken it upon itself to find its one true mate. The combination of losing his balance and his mate almost destroyed him.”
“Harry, my boy. Why didn't you ever tell me?” Albus asked sadly.
Turning his head so he could look the older man in the eye, Harry had the grace to blush. “Once you found out, you would have either pulled me home, or made my mate come here. I didn't what them to feel they were being pressured into a situation that they didn't want.”
“I would never…” Albus tried to say, but at the knowing look in Harry's eyes he stopped.
“Yes, you would have. We all know it. You have made it your job since that Halloween to keep me safe and happy, or at least you've made that attempt. This would have been one more of those decisions you would have made for the 'Greater Good'.”
Knowing that the teen was right, Albus elected not to contradict him. Everyone knew there was nothing he would not sacrifice to keep Harry from becoming hurt once more.
Lucius followed the conversation closely, one question repeating in his mind. “Obviously, since Harry is here, alive and healthy, you managed to do something. Can you tell us what it was?”
Haze snorted in amusement. “That was both the easy part and the hard part. The easy part was convincing his soul that his mate had not abandoned him, and was actually just waiting for his healing and training to be complete. The hard part was keeping him distracted so that he didn't dwell on it and slip into depression.”
“And how did you do that?” Severus asked in a soft growl.
“We tormented the poor boy. Wouldn't leave him alone for a minute. Every time he started to think he was alone, someone or other popped up,” Haze told him.
Grinning madly, Bane continued. “We even managed to get the animals and wood sprites to keep an eye on him. The look on his face the first time one of the drakes came into the room with him was priceless.”
“Don't forget the hellhounds and hellcats,” Shay added.
Shimmering green words formed in the air where everyone could see them. /I'm surprised the tribe is not here with him now./ Jedzia finally added to the conversation.
“They're outside the door,” Harry mumbled, clearly not impressed with his siblings’ antics.
“Ah, that would explain it,” Shay answered for her sister.
“Well, that certainly is interesting,” Albus said, trying to take everything in. “I have only one question that I would like to clear up at this time.”
“And that would be?” Azera asked, although she had a suspicion on what it was.
“My boy, do you know who your mate is?”
Everyone with non-human blood turned and glared at the headmaster, not pleased with the question.
Clearly not expecting the question himself, Harry shot out of Snape's embrace and started looking for an escape route.
“Harry?” Albus questioned.
Not looking at his guardian, Harry slowly nodded his head.
“Do you care to tell us who it is?”
“No,” Harry stated firmly. “I don't want him to feel obligated.”
“You can't really think…” Albus tried again.
“I don't know what to think,” Harry replied, cutting him off. “I'm sorry, I'm not ready for this conversation.” Turning to Anya, he pleaded with his eyes for an excuse to leave the room.
Smiling sadly, Anya looked up at the clock. “Dinner will be served in little bit. Why don't you show Professor Snape and Mr. Malfoy to their rooms, if they so choose?”
Nodding gratefully, Harry turned to the two men in question. “If you wish, I can take you both now. Or you can stay here and someone can show you the way after dinner.”
Lucius declined the invitation, but Severus stood right away. “Lead the way, Mr. Potter.”
Quickly leading the way out of the office, Harry stopped for a moment when he was surrounded by a dozen small animals. Shooing them off, Harry indicated the hallway to the right and set an easy pace. “Anya believed it would be best to put Mr. Malfoy in the family wing. You, on the other hand, she put with the only other professor that does not already have a roommate.”
“And who would that be?”
“Me.”
“I see. And must I put up with the friends you have amongst the students as well?”
“No, actually. The hallway leading to the teachers’ rooms is actually charmed so that no one can find it unless they are personally keyed in by a professor, especially the students. Even Mr. Malfoy will be unable to gain access to them unless led here by someone else.”
Nodding once to indicate his understanding, Severus continued keep pace with the young man in silence, trying to see how far he could push to get the answers that he wanted. “James?”
“I know you want answers, but can it wait for a few minutes. We're almost there.”
Minutes later, Harry grabbed hold of his companion’s arm and before Severus' eyes, an archway formed, leading off to the left. A quick gesture and he felt a cold shiver run down his spine that he realized keyed him into the wards.
They moved down the hallway and presently Harry stopped in front of a heavy wood door. “It reads your magical signature so that you don't need a password. All you need to do is place your hand on the door,” Harry explained, and waited for the older man to do just that.
Leading Severus into the apartment, he pointed out the different rooms. “There's really not much here since I have a cottage on the other end of the Village were I stay. Over there you have the three bedrooms, the middle one is mine so you have your choice of the other two. Bathroom, dining room, this sitting room, and in the kitchen are the stairs leading down to the lab.”
Checking out the bedrooms, Severus glanced inside Harry's before picking the one on the left for his stay. After un-shrinking his bags, he stepped back out and found Harry gazing out of the sitting room window, lost in thought. He joined Harry by the window and wrapped one arm around the young man, pulling him close. “Will you answer a few questions for me?”
Leaning back into the warmth, Harry nodded his head. “I'll try.”
“Is Draco your mate?”
“No. Unless things have changed since our last letter, he's going out with Gin.”
“When did you become friends?”
“He started writing to me during the summer before fifth year. When school started, we put aside our differences and started to become friends. The others didn't like it much to begin with but over that year, despite Umbridge, we all became friends.”
Turning Harry around so that he could see his face, Severus became serious. “Why are you calling me Sir again? I thought we had at least become friends.”
Harry allowed his head to drop and rest on Severus' shoulder. “I wasn't sure how you wanted to handle it here, so I decided to go with caution.”
“I can understand that, as long as you remember that by all rights you are no longer my student. In fact you can say that we are now colleagues.”
“I guess we are.”
“Why do you sleep in a ritual room?”
Harry snorted softly and pulled away. “Not just any ritual room, but the most heavily warded ritual room that we could come up with,” he said with a small laugh.
“You still haven't told me why.”
Harry sobered up quickly. “My nightmares, when I arrived here, were really bad. It came to the point that I couldn't keep a hold on my magic. It was decided that I needed to be placed in a warded room to protect those around me. After I was adopted, we found out that even a warded room wasn't safe during the night, and that was with a dreamless sleep potion. The family came together and created this ritual room for me. It takes any magic that leaks out in my sleep and redirects it somewhere useful like the wards around this village. On a bad night, the magic actually gets transferred first to the wards and the extra to a focus stone in the demon realms. It keeps things here calm.”
Severus' eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Merlin, Harry, how much magic can you leak?”
Harry's eyes turned troubled. “On a bad night I would be able to tear down and then rebuild the wards around Hogwarts in about ten minutes. On a good night I would be able to recharge them to full strength. I have the magic to bring down the Dark Twit, I just can't bring it up while I'm awake,” he explained in a soft voice.
Severus stared at him in surprised silence for a few minutes before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “No one has found a way to ground your magic yet?”
Needing something to do with his hands, Harry motioned for his former professor to follow him down to the lab. He checked the time and realizing he didn't have enough of it to start a potion before dinner, he started going over lesson plans for the next day.
Severus allowed him to work in silence for a few minutes while going over the lab, nodding his head in satisfaction as he went. After several minutes had passed, he stopped beside Harry once more and gently covered the younger man’s hands with his own. “Harry?” he questioned softly.
Sighing at the question, Harry looked up into those onyx eyes and tried to smile. “The others have tried many different ways but none of them worked. K'lal, Azera and Iris are now of the opinion that only one other thing will actually do the job properly.”
“Your mate?” came the oh–so-calm question.
“Yes, my mate!” Harry sneered. “At the moment, everything rests on him. But at the same time no one knows exactly what else may happen. My magic may finally settle down and remain at the same level it is at now, or I might come into a full non-human inheritance. And if that happens, which one will I get, or will I get them all...” his rant finally trailed off into a whisper.
Severus stepped fully around the lab table and pulled the smaller man into his arms once again. Allowing the shaking teen time to regain his composure. When Harry calmed down again he drew away slightly and tilted Harry's chin up so that he could see the brilliant green eyes. “I know answering my questions is hard on you, but I'm just trying to understand what's going on so that I can help you better.”
“I know that, Severus, and I trust you. If I didn't we wouldn't be talking right now,” Harry replied softly, tucking his head back under Severus' chin.
“How much power do you have control over at the moment?”
“I have complete control of all of it separately. It's only when all four aspects of it blend together when I sleep that it scares everyone.”
“And terrifies you, too,” Severus added, knowing the young man in his arms well enough to understand what wasn't said, and felt Harry nod his head in agreement.
The two of them stood like that for a few minutes before another thought occurred to Severus. “How does your power work with your emotions?”
Laughing softly, Harry pulled away and started cleaning up the mess he had made of his work area. “One of the ways that the others used to try and ground me was an amulet that they empowered with a bit of themselves. We found that it works best to ... absorb ... the magical backwash created by my emotions, so I only appear slightly less powerful then I really am.”
“How Slytherin of you, Harry,” Severus drawled in amusement.
Before Harry could reply, a deep voice rumbled through the room in a barely controlled growl. “Ishal is the ultimate Slytherin. After all, he is my son.”
Chuckling softly when he noticed Severus stiffen in surprise, Harry walked over and gave the demon a one armed hug. “Is Albus still alive?” he questioned, ignoring what K'lal said about being Slytherin.
“Of course your grandfather is alive,” K'lal sneered.
“Uh huh,” Harry smirked back. “Mother and Iris threatened to stomp on you if you didn't behave, didn't they?”
Crossing his arms over his chest, K'lal glared at his son. “I have a message from your brothers. They said if you're not up for dinner in five minutes, they are going to come hunting in order to defend your honor.”
Harry glared at the demon even as he blushed. “And how long ago did they give you this message?”
His answer came in the form of Bane and Haze appearing in the lab, facing Severus. Both of their hands glowed as the each brought forth their own elemental powers to bear. Bane moved towards the Potions Master, and Haze started to move Harry towards the door, further away from being able to help Severus if it was needed.
A surge of anger swept through Harry, and without conscious thought a deep growl rumbled from his throat, causing everyone to freeze. “Step back, Bane,” he ordered, his voice taking on the texture of rough gravel.
“Ishal?” Bane questioned nervously.
A warm wind whipped around the lab when no one moved. Harry's eyes started to tint red, glaring at his brother as his anger starting to drive the power that he held. “Back away from Severus now!” he demanded once again.
Severus, seeing that no one wanted to become a target, took the situation into his own hands and moved directly in front of the furious young man. “Mr. Potter, this behavior of yours is most unwelcome. Please refrain from repeating it in my presence,” he sneered in his silkiest voice, while placing his hands on Harry's shoulders.
Harry's anger drained away in a matter of seconds as he processed what was said. “Does that mean I'm allowed to have a fit when you're not here?”
“Yes,” was the immediate answer, “now tell me what set you off this time.”
“They threatened you,” came the matter of fact statement.
“They were protecting you,” Severus stated.
“I don't need protection from you. I never have.”
“Be that as it may, you shouldn't loose your temper like that.”
Bane, who had moved to stand with his father, snorted. “Yeah, Ishal, when you lose your temper, it's downright scary.”
Severus dropped one arm and wrapped the other one so it lay around the smaller man's waist. “Imbecile! Of course that's not the reason. He uses up too much energy and his sugar levels drop far below where they should be. The only thing keeping him on his feet is my arm. Now if the three of you don't mind leading the way, I do believe that you mentioned something about dinner,” he sneered.
Haze and Bane shared a glance and looked back and forth between Harry and Severus. Much to the dark wizard’s disgust, the answer was not in a any language that he could understand. One was in the light tinkling language of the Fae, and the other in the guttural growls of the demonic. Both had K'lal laughing and Harry groaning in dismay. “Would one of you like to repeat that?” Severus questioned.
“Not if they know what's good for them,” Harry half growled. Summoning a small flask from across the room, he popped the top off and drained the energy booster. Seeing Severus' questioning look, he explained. “Both Jones and the idiot Jarvis will be at dinner tonight. If I appear weak in any way they'll attempt to rip me apart.”
“It will be the last such attempt,” Severus stated calmly, much to the amusement of K'lal.
“There is that, I suppose,” Harry said thoughtfully. “I'm just going to love the looks on their faces when they find out who came for dinner.” He snickered, and refused to say more on the subject as he led the way to the dining hall.