Musphelheim

Ryan was not always a social creature but for Harry's sake and Devon Carmicheal’s Halloween Masquerade party, he would make an effort this time. There was also the fact that he was being paid to be the entertainment. Her older brother’s band would be playing the instruments and they just needed a voice for the group.

Harry and him decided to go as a duo like something out of a forest dream. Harry's simple white three-piece tuxedo with layered floral design and a hint of feathers would reveal that he had made it by shaping his lumen attire. His weapon Sky's the Limit had been clipped together into its spear and shield form across his back to give him the classy warrior vibes.

On the other hand, Ryan had decided to go very femme with his outfit because he had chosen to wear a beautiful ball gown. And he felt like a frigging Disney Princess in that shit. It was a deep navy blue color with pastel blue roses sewn into a silver bodice, his hair grown out and wrapped in an intricate style.

It was going to be an excellent night.
---------

It was a horrible night for one Ryan Lark. His brain hurt, he could still taste the blood in his mouth, and his dress had been bloodied, ripped, and disintegrated. With a quick and easy movement, he plucked the contacts from his eyes and tossed them out into the street before summoning his glasses from the pocket space.

With another gesture, he pulled out one of his special concoctions and ignited it without hesitation. Taking a deep pull, his lungs were filled with smoke, as the powerful scent and taste of mint and ginger filled his lips. In between long drags, the teen looked at the ring on his finger and its emblem.

A singular eye with one hand on each side of it. There was a price to being the only Umbral Sage in existence, and if Ryan thought about it anymore he might walk away. He'd known what he was signing up for. He just thought it was better than his other life.

So instead he stressed on why wizards had decided to show up now of all time, and what that meant for Harry. Releasing the breath he didn’t notice that he had been holding, sighed and wonder what his mother would have said if she had seen him tonight.

“Fucking wizards.” The seventeen-year-old exhaled as he groaned and stood before tossing the unconscious man over his shoulders. He had a long walk home so he might as well get started.

--------

Harry Potter entered the room feeling confused as the haze left his eyes and looked at the man with sandy hair and scars on his face. He smiled and said, “I know it’s been a long time Harry, but do you remember me?”
______

Neville felt awkward. A double outlier in that he didn’t know the music, he wasn’t a muggle, and he was only here because he had to play lookout and bait. Now his job was done and he had led the target into the room with Moody and the others all he could do was stand around and listen to the music the muggle was singing.

His voice was soft and sultry as if it was a private conversation. He sang of a love that was sweet, hot, and lethally toxic as Hermione would say. She had also said that his relationship with Lark, whatever it was or was not, was also lethally toxic considering they met through his attempted murder/suicide but that was beside the point.

He sang a couple more songs for what felt like forever whilst never taking his eyes off Neville despite the strobing lights and the sea of bodies. It made him feel like prey under the gaze of a predator. The blonde didn’t know what Hermione would say about the fact that he actually enjoyed the gaze and purposefully tried to avoid it to see if his attention would still be there when he turned away. Or bumped into a random stranger or somehow ended up in a conversation with a stranger who actually listened when he spoke. 

That last part was surprising actually. In that, it didn’t happen once, twice, or even three times. More than he could count actually. The only letdown was that the singer was no longer on stage and that despite the voluminous ballgown and Neville shooting up like a weed, he couldn’t find them anywhere.

“You know, if you wanted to see me, Adri, all you had to do was call.”

Neville gasped as he turned to find the really pretty singer staring up at him with dark eyes rimmed by molten silver rings. His lips had just the slightest curve at the ends as his tongue ran across it and then Neville processed the name.

Adri. As in the name, Lark called him. The singer who he’s been playing peekaboo with was his longest friend. 

“Lark! What are you doing here? And why are you wearing that?”

Lark raised a singular eyebrow at his unnecessarily expressive face that asked three questions all at the same time Neville was right.

One, ‘Should I not be here?’

Two, ‘Are you saying I don’t look good?’

Three, ‘Why are you here?’

Neville cleared his throat as he spoke, “I can’t say if you should be here or not, I just wasn’t expecting to see you here. You’re like more ‘people disgust me’ than even Theo at his worst. I’m here because I needed to get out of my comfort zone and my dad’s running an errand in the area. And you look good, great even. I just didn’t recognize you out of your sweats.”

The eyebrow dropped and Lark’s smile grew into a full grin that sent flutters through Neville’s very being and made his magic want to flare up.

“Thank you Adrian although I suppose you should call me Ryan on this side. You’re getting really good at reading my face, I don’t know if I should feel worried.”

He paused for a moment never taking his eyes off of Neville.

“But no, I came 'cause my brother wanted to be a social butterfly and I’m getting paid really well.”

This time it was Neville's turn to raise a brow that made L- Ryan roll his eyes and speak, “Plus, if someone acts up or if I feel like it, I get to use the emergency baseball bat.”

Neville laughed so hard that his head flew back for a moment, “There were go! There’s my violent demon.”

If  Neville had been paying attention at that moment he would’ve noticed the way Ryan almost choked on his drink and stared at the younger man will wide surprised eyes. When he did recover from laughing he asked,  “So your infamous brother is actually here tonight?”

Ryan nodded before looking around his eyes narrowed in concentration.

“That’s weird. I can’t sense him.”

Neville raised an eyebrow but said nothing even as he began to get a weird feeling. The same feeling he had when he foolishly went with Howard and Ron up to the attic. The night when they found out that not only did James and Lily Potter have more than one son, but that they had abandoned him. Which was the very reason why Neville was here now.

It was why he had used a charm that compelled Harry Potter into a random room.

Why he was talking to Ryan, who had gone from relaxed and happy to stressed out and worried as he turned and yelled, “Adrian I’m sorry but I have to find my brother. Devon! I’m gonna need the baseball bat!” 

When a pretty girl wearing a lacy pink gown handed Ryan a stylized hunk of metal that looked vaguely like a baseball except for the spikes in the head, the feeling worsened.

And it got unbearable when Ryan made his way through the parting crowd like he was the killing curse itself and towards where the others were.  Neville had enough sense to know that this was the bad thing his gut was ringing towards. He also knew that if he wanted to still be… something with Ryan, he better leave best well alone.

__________

It was said that Ryan had an immaculate sense of timing. A shitty sense of urgency, and he was usually late to things but his timing was good otherwise. Hence why he entered the room of wizards right as they hit Harry with a stupify.

Ryan suddenly felt like when he was younger and threw a tantrum watching himself from a different perspective. Hollow eyes would watch and observe as he balled his eyes out until they got bored and forcibly made him unconscious with that same spell.

Ryan didn’t think he would ever be able to cast that spell if he ever went back. Even now, almost a decade later was still too much.

Sending out a flare of magic to seal off the room, Ryan point his bat forward and spoke, “You have approximately five, four, three, two, oh look at that I got to one second before you could explain. So make it quick in telling me what your kind wants with my brother?”

“None of your business, Witch. It would do you well to release us from this place.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen. So you can either let go of my brother and-“

“STUPIFY!”

Bang!

The impact of the bat and the shattering of the spell was like an explosion in the room, the sound waves shaking the room and rattling dust from the ceiling. Ryan’s eyes glowed with violet fury as an aura of power bled from his body and snaked around the bat like a dangerous casing. 

The wizards felt the aura of violent death in their bones as the young man’s glare made their heart pound in their chests. 

“Last chances wizards.”

“ Be damned like the rest of your kind Witch! ” The man with the artificial eye growled out in Enochian as a pure white blast of energy left his wand. 

The moment it touched Ryan’s aura the feeling of death was replaced by holy energy as the windows were blown out and the bolt of energy split into two distinct shapes and forms. 

The first was that of a ship, vibrantly colored and adorned with gold. Its oars-like appendages worked with haste to pick up the four wizards and an unconscious Harry before flying off into the distance. The second was a cobra-like creature with golden claws for arms that wrapped around Ryan before fleeing the building. 

Ryan screamed in fury and anguish wrapping the power around to take the form of a harpy eagle and chasing after the kinship. 

Swerving around buildings and dodging shards of ice and golden feathers with grace Ryan felt frustration well within his as he was once again slowed down by shards of ice as he avoided missiles fired off by the kinship. 

Returning to his human form he channeled even more magic into the bay heaving it with fury and power watching it explode against the Glamour’s false face stunning it for a mere moment but it was enough.

Contorting his body midair as his hair exploded as infernal energy devoured bits and pieces of the dress that fanned out too wide as he fell through the infernal portal. 

“I call upon the pact that binds us. Steal the secrets of the world and use them as the wind beneath my wings consume the world, and share my blood, Harbinger of Finality. Zildaar Vpaah!”

The portal wrapped around the seventeen-year-old as a bird that looked similar to a raven exploded into being its tails holding onto the shell as it chased after the Kinship.

The infernal demon known as Malphas shrieked, the sound wave shattering glass and creating powerful gales that shredded the kinship only for a singular unconscious body to fall instead of a group.

Its job done Malphas took to climbing and higher into the skies with each thrust of its’ wings before doing a reverse dive sending the portal holding Ryan within it.  Even from this distance, Ryan could already tell, that it wasn’t Harry.