Oh fuck, it's a demon
Hey Neville, how are you?"
The boy looked up from his empty plate.
"I'm going to kill him."
Ginny nodded slowly and sat down opposite him.
"So, you're not coming to the second part?"
He shook his head and crossed his arms.
"I don't think I can stomach looking at him one more second. Have you seen the glee in his eyes when he talks about death? It's unsettling. And if I even just think about what he did... I can't."
"Don't worry, I'll try to get on his nerves for you."
A small smile tugged at his lips.
"Thanks, Ginny."
They talked for a while longer, Luna joining the table as well.
In the middle of the break, Professor McGonagall came hurrying into the hall, asking if they were all okay.
"Mostly, yes." Neville growled.
His teacher looked ready to throw Lestrange out of the next window.
"I will attend at least a bit of the second half to control his behavior." She stated. The teacher could almost see the stone lifting from Ginny's heart.
"Thanks, Professor. He's really... something. But the subject is not as bad as I thought. Still scary and pretty morbid, but at least he's not... I don't know, gutting someone in front of us or something."
At the end of the break, they gathered, Neville leaving the group to attend 'The Apothecary' instead.
When they arrived, and McGonagall knocked at the door, nothing happened.
"Are you there, Mr. Lestrange?" She asked and opened the door.
Rodolphus was indeed standing in the middle of the room. His long, braided hair had come pretty loose, some strands falling into his face. His pale eyes were obsessively trained on his left arm, which he had outstretched. With the other he was holding a dagger, the blade hovering just over his wrist.
McGonagall gasped loudly, the students too surprised to react outside of staring frozen in fear and anticipation. But the teacher's gasp made the man blink once.
Then again.
He averted his eyes and slowly took the blade away.
Then he finally looked up into the frozen, shocked faces.
"Well, we have a possession, congrats. You should see your faces." He deadpanned, taking all the nervous energy out of the situation.
"Wha- Mr. Lestrange, please give me that dagger." McGonagall hurried over to him, and he gave it to her, shrugging.
"If it makes you happy, Professor."
"What was that supposed to be, some kind of prank?" She hissed.
Rodolphus snorted unelegantly and gestured to the body on the stretcher.
"No, Professor, one of my corpses is possessed. And it's probably this one. I am not sure, though; I have another pretty suspicious one at the mortuary. I took this one because I thought it would be the least likely to be the victim of possession. Sorry."
McGonagall's eyes looked like they would pop out of her skull at any moment.
"This-this is a serious safety hazard for the children, for anyone-"
"That is why I have been working alone. Less people to worry about-" he stopped suddenly, listening.
Now that he wasn't talking, they could all hear the nauseating cracking.They turned to the body of Dorothy Page, whose arm had just lifted from its dead position, cracking through the rigor mortis, into an outstretched form, pointing directly at the window.
Now, her head turned. The same, vile sounds coming from her neck, it looked like the dead woman was about to speak.
"No, you're not ruining my damn stapling work!" Rodolphus hissed, rushed over, and put a hand under the jaw to stop it from opening. Then he grabbed the head and violently shoved it back into place, almost as if he was breaking the woman's neck. Still holding the jaw in place, he yanked the arm down with the energy of a tired man who had had enough of this bullshit.
"You stay down, understood?"
After nothing happened, he let go of the body and wanted to step back to the speechless teacher and the wide-eyed students.
"Anyway-"
The arm started lifting itself again.
He grabbed it and slammed it back down without even looking at it.
"-what I wanted to say is that you are right, professor; continuing would be too dangerous. But I also can't safely transport her back with an active demon wreaking havoc. I'll have to perform an exorcism.If one of you could write a letter to my brother, that would be really helpful." He said, starting to growl a bit at the end because he was half wrestling the arm.
"S-sure. What should I write?" Hufflepuff asked, parchment and feather at the ready. Rodolphus hated to admit it, but that kid was growing on him. Not annoying and helpful, what a blessing.
"Just tell him that there's a demon. He needs to get my equipment from the cupboard, not the red one, the other one. And another bottle of reagent from the kitchen, write that extra; he'll forget it; he's an airhead. That's all; give it to the fastest owl you have."
"What do you need, Lestrange? Maybe we have some of it here?" McGonagall tried diplomatically.
He made a dismissive gesture.
"Probably not; it's all pretty specialized. And even if, I would still prefer my own materials, of which I know where they're from. -And for fuck's sake, stop! I'm not jumping out of that window today!" The last part was directed at the corpse, who actually froze back up at that.
Rodolphus carefully let the arm go to test the waters, and it flopped back onto the gurney.
"There, perfectly dead again." He exclaimed and wiped his hands on his robes.
"I suggest you leave us alone before that thing gets any ideas."
McGonagall quickly rounded the students and shooed them away.
Only a good half hour later, Rabastan Lestrange was marching through the student-filled corridors. The kids, obviously afraid.
Rabastan, no idea what to do or where to go, simply knocked on a door, interrupting Fred and George in their presentation of prank fireworks.
"Hey, sorry, do you have any idea where my brother is? Dark red hair, tall, does mortuary work, and is trying to do an exorcism?" "Excuse me?" Fred asked carefully.
Rabastan blinked.
"He always looks at people as if he wants them to fall over dead?"
"Oh, that guy!" George exclaimed. "Yeah, we saw him this morning, but no idea where the classroom is."
Rabastan gave them a genuine smile and a wave.
"Great, thanks anyway, bye." And disappeared off to the next door.
The twins turned to the baffled students, of whom some of them were their good friends.
"Just to be clear, that was Rabastan Lestrange asking for Rodolphus Lestrange, right?"
Lee Jordan looked just as baffled as they did. "I guess..."
"I hate it when they're friendly; it's almost worse than when they're just cartoonishly evil."
Rabastan strolled from classroom to classroom until he happened upon Professor McGonagall with three students in a corridor.
"Hey, didn't one of you send that letter? The last five people I asked all told me to go find you." They all turned their heads like human owls.
The Gryffindor girl's face morphed from surprised to realization to 'oh fuck, not another one.'
Fair, to be honest.
"Y-y-yeah I-I did." A Hufflepuff boy stuttered, half hiding behind McGonagall.
Man, what did his brother do to these poor students?
"Soooo, exorcism?" He asked and held up the bag he had brought.
Finally, McGonagall seemed to unfreeze.
She needed a second to regain posture, then cleared her throat.
"Yes, your brother told us to wait outside and ban the corridor for a while. Please follow."
"Yeah, probably a good decision." He chose not to elaborate for everyone's mental health. He really didn't want to think about the grandma incident more than he needed to.
The teacher sent the students away with a last shooing motion, then the two made their way to the corridor.
When they arrived, McGonagall was about to say something about caution, but Rabastan couldn't hear her over the loud bang the door made as he threw it open.
"Hey asshole." He called happily.
Rodolphus, who was lying on the floor, groaned.
"Oh golly, oh gosh, another demon." He mumbled.
Rabastan snorted and threw his bag at the other. Right on the stomach, perfect.
Rodolphus made an 'oof' sound and finally managed to peel himself off the floor.
"So, how's it going?"
"Fuck you and take a Letting strip."
"So bad? Oh, your wife says hi, by the way."
Rodolphus had started rummaging through the bag.
"What else did she say?" He asked without looking up.
"She hopes it maims you enough that you finally stop practicing this merlin-awful job."
Rodolphus snorted and shook his head.
"Well, sad for her, no one is getting maimed today."
"Tell that to your predecessor."
"Skill issue."
He pulled a few small pieces of parchment out and held one out for his brother.
Rabastan took it and was about to leave, with a skip in his step, before McGonagall stopped him.
"Can someone explain what you are doing?" She hissed.
"Oh yeah." Rabastan held the parchment up. It had several symbols and a few runes on it, some of them she recognized as associated with death, but others she had never seen before.
"This is a letting strip. It smolders and eventually combusts when you find the right spot. When it does, it reveals a sigil or rune. We need four of those to identify the demon's name, which we need to get it out of the body."
"So what, you just... wander the castle?"
He shrugged.
"Yeah, pretty much-" he froze and looked over McGonagall's shoulder at his brother.
"Need help with that?" She quickly whirled around, but Lestrange seemed just frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at nothing.
"Do you see... the blood?" He whispered.
They both quickly scanned the room with their eyes.
"No, there's no blood here. All clean."
She nodded reassuringly.
This was out of her comfort zone. She had never seen a man be possessed, and the Lestranges made it out to not be that bad, with their flippant behavior towards the topic. But Rodolphus' wide, terror-filled eyes told another story.
"I see blood." He said.
"Lestrange, there is nothing." She tried carefully.
He didn't react to her, but slowly, as if deeply afraid, turned his head to look at his hands. His breath hitched, his eyes flickering wildly, taking in details she couldn't see.
Then he blinked, and the haze that had covered his eyes disappeared.
He blinked a few more times, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.
He groaned.
"Let's get on with this already before it's dark out." He growled and stepped past McGonagall.
"Mr. Lestrange?" A voice called from the other side of the corridor.
The shadow under the man's eyes got deeper as he turned and found Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw weed-girl, and Weasley.
"What?!" He complained, then quickly stopped them before they could answer.
"Wait, are you real? Are you going to phantom-stab me?" Weasley's eyes widened.
"That can happen?" And Hufflepuff's jaw almost dropped to the ground.
"D-does that hurt?"
He rolled his eyes.
"Great, you're real. A demon would never make itself look as stupid as you are right now." He drawled.
Weasley narrowed her eyes and stepped before the other two.
"Hey!"
"Lestrange, I know the situation is dire, but behave appropriately towards our students or else-" he cut McGonagall off harshly.
"Or else what? You throw me out and perform the exorcism yourself? I think not."
Rabastan weaseled himself between his brother and everyone else and smiled apologetically
."Don't take it to heart; he's not usually like this."
"Yes, I am." Rodolphus hissed and crossed his arms.
"The demon is affecting him. I think we should get a move on. Sooo, did you three want something...?"
"Oh yes," Luna smiled, "We wanted to help." "Absolutely not!" McGonagall yelled.
"Have any of you actually listened to what I told you earlier? Not over my cold, dead body." Rodolphus growled, and Rabastan absentmindedly put a calming hand on his shoulder, a nervous laugh escaping him.
"I don't think that's a good idea. You're just kids. It will notice when you try to assist us and target you as well. And believe me, you don't want that." He shuddered.
"To answer your question from earlier, yes, yes, it hurts getting stabbed, even if it's just your 'imagination.'"
Rodolphus felt like he was about to explode on the spot. They had wanted to 'move on' about a thousand times now, but nobody actually did. He really, really wanted to torture someone to death right now. It would probably make him feel better about everything.
Rabastan maybe.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Rabastan, I want to torture you to death right now."
"Oh, okay. Thanks for the warning."
"No problem."
Weasley shook her stupid little head in confusion about their behavior. It would look better severed on the floor.
"We wanted to know more about how this works..." she said slowly, but McGonagall shook her head again.
"I- I'm not that sure anymore." Hufflepuff mumbled.
Rodolphus rolled his eyes, turned around, and just wandered away with his letting strip.
"Hey! Hey, Lestrange! You shouldn't go alone!"
But he was a thousand times more productive alone. A new voice suddenly interjected, and everyone else froze.
"Rodolphus, it's me; it's your mother." A soft voice spoke.
He turned to look at the window.
It was impossible for her to be there. This window was too high up. And there was this other little issue.
"Good one, she's dead." He spoke, emotionless.
"Don't you want to let me in? It's so terribly cold out here in the rain."
Her eyes were pits of pure darkness, following his every movement. It was so exhaustingly obvious how inhumane her jittery movements were.
From the way the students and even McGonagall had started gaping once more, he assumed that they could see her too. Which was bad.
They were running out of time. And the fucking students were along for the ride now, apparently.
"Leave the kids out of it; they're just curious idiots." He tried tiredly.
A soft smile spread on the woman's lips as she caressed the window lovingly.
"I know how you miss me. Please, dear, don't lock me out."
He sighed once more.
"Oh well, there's no talking to you. Let me guess which one you are. Fermok?"
The sweet smile turned down, and the woman jumped forward, banging her fists against the window.
"Let me in, you filthy little bastard!" She screamed.
Thunder crashed across the sky, and she was gone. Someone behind him had screamed in surprise, but he didn't bother looking back to check who it was.
"You've already tried this last time; it's getting old." He said.
"But blood isn't." A deep, scratchy voice said, echoing out of the walls around them. And from deep inside of him too. When he blinked, a pool of blood was rapidly rising on the floor, flooding towards him, staining his shoes, going up towards his legs-He yelped and stumbled back, eyes wide.
When he blinked again, it was gone.
The voice laughed, the sound burning his eardrums, like someone scratching over a chalkboard.
"At least one of us is having fun." He hissed between gritted teeth and heavy breaths.
Someone carefully touched his shoulder.
He looked over and found Rabastan.
"You good?"
He took a few more breaths in. Why did he always forget how exhausting this could be?
"I will decapitate you in your sleep."
"Alright." Rabastan said and shrugged.
"I don't think it's Fermok. Last time he was out, there was way more spirit activity. I haven't seen one yet." He nodded absentmindedly. Yeah, Rabastan was probably right. He had just guessed based on bitchiness, but those things were all bitches.
"Wait, wait, wait! What do you mean, 'last time he was out'? I thought you exorcised these things!" Weasley interjected.
Rodolphus rubbed his hand over his face. This wasn't doing any good for his raging headache.
"I'm going to exorcise you if you keep talking." He murmured.
Rabastan patted his arm and nodded.
"It's fine." He said and turned to the others.
"You're right, exorcising, not killing. You can't kill a demon. We're only banishing them back to hell until they manage to drag themselves back up to bother us again."
"This job sounds scarier by the second. No wonder normal people wouldn't want to do it." Luna mused.
McGonagall was probably dying inside by now, torn between reprimanding him for being an asshole to the students and reprimanding the students for ticking him off.
"You know, I hated you three the least out of all the students in this castle, but you're rising rapidly on the list." He growled.
"Don't you dare hurt my students, Lestrange!"
"What list?" Hufflepuff had turned paler than ever. Apparently seeing a demon life in action wasn't as mortifying as being on his list. What the fuck did that say about him? Huh.
"Uh, just for research purposes... where am I on the list?" Weasley asked, looking nervously towards the exit.
No escape, bitch, you're in it now.
Rabastan frowned.
"Don't try it; he doesn't tell me where I am either."
"B-but you're his brother; why are you o-o there at all?" Hufflepuff stuttered.
"That alone should be enough of a reason; ask Weasley." He sneered and turned away again.
"Honestly, yeah." She said, frowning.
"But i love them!"
"Could we please continue now, before it gets further? I want to be done before midnight."
"I thought you said we shouldn't help?" Luna asked, and McGonagall was close to losing it now. He sent her a glare, which she fired back with double the heat.
"You will not involve my students in this!"
He threw his hands up in the air in defeat.
"You know what? I don't care. You three!"
They looked at him like three lost puppies. He hated dogs, goddamnit.
"You saw the lady in the window? Nod or shake you head, don't talk. I'm tired of your voices."
They all nodded in unison.
He gestured towards them, sneering at McGonagall.
"They're involved, too late now. Now, everyone who isn't holding a Letting Strip in two seconds gets thrown out of the window!"
Ahhh, how good things worked out when you threatened people.
"You don't have the authority here!" She said, for the thousandth time today, but was still holding a Letting Strip.
"I really don't care; I have a headache so bad I want to actively kill myself. And I would be half done by now if I had done this alone."
He had taken two steps.
Two.
And just as he finished talking, as if to spite him, the Letting Strip combusted without warning and singed his hand.
"Fuck!" He hastily shook off the ashes, but too late. His palm and thumb were burned anyway; thanks for nothing.
"Ouch, which one is it?" Rabastan took a thick book out of the bag.
Rodolphus was still shaking his hand but looked down.
A rune had burned itself perfectly into the old, usually untouchable stone floor of Hogwarts' halls.
The students reluctantly came over to look at it, McGonagall following them like a guard dog on steroids.
"It's frost." He said, after taking a short look.
Rabastan stared at him blankly without moving a muscle.
Rodolphus sighed.
"The one that looks like a squiggly Z."
"Ohhh, that one. Got it." and he marked something down, then opened the book.
"Okay, it could be Azel or Kovos from Invidious, Balmet from Immolation, or Variketh, Uzkaret, or Fermok from Desolation."
"I assume those are names? And you narrow it down by the runes? Kinda cool, actually." Ginny mused.
"It is." Rabastan grinned enthusiastically.
"W-what do these other words mean?" Hufflepuff asked, and to everyone's surprise, Ravenclaw smiled at him and spoke.
"Those are three houses of hell. That's where demons are sent back to when they are banished from Earth."
Rodolphus had to restart his brain.
"I don't want to know how you know that..." he said, then shook his head and went over to his brother to take another Letting Strip.
"And I'm going to ignore it right now. Everyone move around in pairs if two, so it's less likely to be targeted. The sigils should burn in relatively close proximity to the body, so no need to wander the whole castle. But we have some ground to cover nonetheless, and we're not fast enough; one of us is getting fully possessed. By the looks of it, it's probably going to be me, and I don't want that. Alright, let's go."
He grabbed Rabastan's elbow and pulled him along down the corridor.
McGonagall took Hufflepuff with her, and Ravenclaw and Weasley actually went on their own.Unexpectedly brave. On the other hand, not so unexpected, considering Weasley was a Gryffindor.
"I know I've asked this way too much today already, but... are you alright? You seem a little out of it. A little more than usual."
Rodolphus could only shrug, knowing that his father would have hounded him for the not-pureblood-like gesture.
"I hate this. These three little pests have insight into my insecurities. It's enough that that demon knows; that thing doesn't have to announce it to the whole of Hogwarts."
Rabastan frowned sympathetically.
"What they've witnessed until now was stuff most people would be freaked out about. I don't think this makes these kiddies less scared of you, if that's what you're worrying about."
He scoffed a little.
"They saw me yelp and stumble like a child, from a vision of a little blood." He argued.
Now it was on Rabastan to shrug.
"Still freaky. There are people who don't surround themselves with death and torture every day, you know? Blood is scary to most of them."
He drew into himself for a moment, hugging his arms close to his body. More loose strands of hair fell into his face and over his eyes, officially rendering the braid he'd made to keep them out of his face useless.
Rabastan wasn't getting the point. But he wasn't getting the point either.
Why was he so goddamn ticked off by everything today?
Sure, the demon, but something else was different.
He sighed, letting his head roll back a bit to release the tension in his back.
"I think I'm just tense." He finally said lamely.
Rabastan answered with an unconvinced "Mh." And they continued on in silence.