Demons! turned out to be a book so long, detailed and nearly incomprehensible that Narcissa soon despaired of making any sort of useful sense out of it. It was five oclock and she was only on Abbadon, King of the Abyss. Abaddon is the chief of the demons of the seventh hierarchy, the king of the grasshoppers, or demon insects (described as having the bodies of winged war-horses and the poisonous curved tails of scorpions). As described in Revelations, Abbadon opens the gates of the abyss and unleashes upon the earth his swarms of demon locusts…
Narcissa banged her head on the table. Why not? There was no one around to see her. 'Demon locusts,' she groaned. 'Give me a break.'
'Demon locusts are no joke,' came a dry voice from behind her.
'They can really ruin a picnic.'
She spun around, her hand at her throat, and saw a familiar head and shoulders floating in the fireplace. Dark eyes regarded her narrowly.
'Severus,' she said. 'You scared me.'
'I?m sorry.' Snape inclined his head. He had always possessed a almost archaic set of courtly mannerisms, she remembered this from the time he and Lucius had been close. He wasn?t the hand-kissing type, but he would bow, and stand up for women when they entered a room. It had always struck her as at odds with his otherwise very severe demeanor. 'I was looking for…'
'Sirius?'
Snape looked every so slightly shifty. 'Yes.'
'Well, he isn?t here. And I don?t know when he?ll be back. Can I give him a message?'
Snape hesitated for a moment, then nodded curtly. 'I thought he might want to know that I translated the fire-letters on the wall of the cell where…' His voice trailed off.
'Where Lucius died? You can say it, Severus.'
'Where he was murdered.' Snape held up a folded piece of parchment. 'Its a demon-banishing incantation.'
'You mean a demon-summoning incantation.'
'No, I mean what I said. I think he must have called something up, not liked what he saw, and tried to banish it. To no avail. I believe the banishing curse is demon-specific as well, but since Sirius borrowed my demonology text, I can?t do a match.'
'Ah,' said Narcissa. 'Well.' She held out her hand for the parchment, and after a moment of hesitation, Snape relinquished it.
'I?ll give it to Sirius when he returns.'
'Very well.' Snape nodded curtly, and vanished.
Narcissa sat for a moment, staring at the parchment in her hand.
Then she rose to her feet, went into the drawing-room, and with a quick 'Alohomora!' opened the trap door that led to the dungeons.
She had never much liked the corridors under Malfoy Manor, and they were even worse when she was alone and in the tense state she was in currently. She held her wand high, trying to spread its illumination. She took a deep breath when she reached the dungeon gate before pushing it open. It gave a rusty scream which sent shivers up her spine.
The demon was awake, as she had expected. She rather doubted that such creatures slept at all. It regarded her with whirling red eyes as she approached its cell.
Without preamble, she stopped dead in front of it and said: 'Demon.
What do you want?'
Its whirling eyes widened. 'What does any prisoner want? To go free.'
'I can?t set you free. But I can send you back to Hell.'
Its twisted little face reflected its doubt. 'You would do that? Why?'
'Because I want to make a bargain with you. I?ll send you back to Hell, in exchange for a favor from you.'
The demons face stretched into an ugly rictus-like grin. 'A bargain, eh? Tell me more… I?m all ears.'
The trip forward in time was much like the trip back had been.
The Portkey deposited Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Benjamin on the front steps of Slytherins castle. Hermione and Ron stumbled forward, but kept their feet; Benjamin and Ginny landed more gracefully, lightly as cats.
Once inside, the castle had a still, Sleeping-Beauty sort of feel to it, as if it were trapped outside of time. No breath of wind stirred the tapestries as they hurried after Benjamin along the narrow stone corridors, no sound of birds came through the open, glassless windows. There was no need for any wards on the adamantine prison to be taken down: the door was open.
They went into the cell and Hermione almost cried out: the walls were exactly the color blue she had seen in her vision of Harry. She barely saw the tumble of odd heavy furnishings everywhere, the shimmering tapestries. The idea that she might be standing only feet from Harry in space, although a thousand years away in time, made her desperate. She pulled Ron and Ginny towards her, linking arms with them, nearly forgetting to say goodbye to Benjamin. It was Ginny who drew him towards her and kissed him on the cheek in the thanks. He turned bright pink, and then Ginny flipped the Time-Turner over and the room, the tapestries, the glowing walls, and the blushing Heir of Gryffindor vanished into the gray mist.
It wasn?t so bad this time — cold and airless and intense, but Hermione kept tight hold of Ron and Ginny. When the world finally righted itself again, she was still on her feet, her arms linked with theirs. She opened her eyes.
The room was the same. Blue walls. The tapestries the same, dulled by age and years now. The same
