'He did have a thirty day trial period, and there's a pretty good indemnification clause in there,' the demon insisted, sounding aggrieved. Draco shook his head in disbelief. 'But all of that is from times that have passed, mortal boy. The completion of the bargain is now at issue.'
'Slytherin told me that until the Orb is opened and his life-spark released, you can?t find him, and cannot take either the sword to meet the original bargain or his life, to cover the interest and penalties.'
'He was correct,' the demon said coldly.
'He also said,' Draco said slowly, 'that if he freely selects and presents to you the life of a Magid Heir who has Slytherin blood, then he can retrieve his powers from the Orb and keep the sword. Is that correct too?' The demon nodded, and Draco considered the import of the contract's terms. 'I know I can die, I did it last week.
And you say Harry can be killed now too?'
The demon nodded again.
'So we have to open the Orb,' said Draco slowly.
'If you do not, we cannot take the Snake Lord, and if we cannot take him, we cannot take the sword,' said the demons. 'We cannot even take it from you now, or believe us, we would have done so.' His voice was bitter. 'We want the sword. It is our right to hold it and our obligation to claim it. We have no use for Magids, and do not want you or your friend. In exchange for the boon your mother granted our fellow, we have agreed to grant you one moment of opportunity to fulfill this bargain in the manner of your choice.'
Draco looked over at Harry. Harry was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looking sulky, and generally being of no help. Draco turned back to the demons. 'If you have no use for Magids, then why do you want Slytherin?' he demanded.
The demon grinned, showing that in fact it had not two but three rows of razor-sharp teeth. 'Vengeance,' it said. 'He cheated us. In Hell, his torments will be excruciating and very…extensive.'
'Good,' said Draco, nodding nodded. 'If we open the Orb, you will be summoned to take him?' he said.
'Immediately,' said the demons. 'If you open the Orb, we will be summoned. We will reveal to you then how you If you can cause Slytherin to return the sword to us by his own hand, then the bargain will be fulfilled, and we will take the sacrifice as you choose it. We would prefer that you allow us to take the Snake Lord. Of course, if he reaches the Orb before you such a return occurs… we will be forced to take our sacrifice as he offers it — either your blood, or the Gryffindors.'
The demons words were cold, precise and exact. Draco turned them over in his mind. Demons, he knew, did not lie; at least not when conducting bargains, but there were often several shades of meaning to their statements. In this case, however, there seemed no choice but to trust them.
'Its a deal,' he said.
Behind him Harry was muttering something about people who went around making deals with demons for no good reason. He was muttering quietly, however. Earlier he had made a bit of an attempt to rush forward and Draco had stiff-armed him back into the wall, knocking the wind out of him.
'We do realize the near impossibility of your task,' said the demon, grinning with all its sets of teeth showing. 'But even the sliver of a chance is better than none.'
Draco shrugged. The sword was a comforting weight in his hand. He could sense the demons greedy gaze upon it. 'My father used to say, 'If you fall off a cliff, you might as well try to teach yourself to fly on the way down.?'
'What does that mean?' the demon demanded, blinking.
'No idea,' said Draco. 'I was hoping you would tell me.'
The demon smiled again. 'You do fancy yourself clever, and so you are,' it said. 'If we must take an Heir in the end, I do hope its you,' he added, looking at Draco directly. 'I somehow imagine you could well keep the Master entertained. The colors of Hell would suit you, too. All that black and scarlet, with your fairness and silver hair.
Lovely.'
Draco wondered for a fleeting moment if the demon was hitting on him. Then he decided that that was very unlikely. It was merely trying to frighten him, and had succeeded, with a rather vivid and unpleasant mental image of a land beyond a black gate, where the sky was always blood-colored, a place much worse than the one where he had met Lily and James Potter.
'I doubt Hell ever welcomes anyone,' he said thoughtfully. Beside him, Harry looked at him, and he saw a flicker of something pass across his green eyes.
The demon raised its hand, and gestured towards the wall. The dark opening appeared there again as it had for Slytherin. 'When we are summoned again, we will be paid,' said the demon. 'If not with the sword, then with blood.'
They vanished, without even the decency of the * pop* of Disapparation to lessen the eerieness.
'Well, that was informative,' he said, turning around to look at Harry. And jumped as a sudden shimmering rainbow refraction painted the wall on the opposite side of the room. It blurred, and without any warning, Sirius, Ron and Hermione appeared out of the wall, stepping forward as if they stepped through a door.
Draco blinked, but the vision stayed steady. It was Sirius, Ron and Hermione. They were filthy, but looked unharmed. He barely had a chance to get a look at them, though, before Harry bolted around him and ran towards them. Sirius, grinning hugely, threw his arms around Harry and hugged him so hard that Harrys feet lifted up off the floor. When Sirius put him down Hermione and Ron fell on him, and they all embraced each other in a flurry of arms and excited chatter.
Draco stood where he was, feeling awkward. He looked down at the floor and saw the sword at his feet. And blinked at it. Its hilt was devoid of any stain, as if it had drunk swallowed up the blood spilled on it. He suppressed an involuntary shudder, bent down, and took the hilt in his hand. When he straightened up, he saw that the others were still standing together. Sirius had his hand on Harrys shoulder, and Harry was talking in a sharp, excited voice, audible even across the room, 'The cloak? They took my dads cloak? We have to get it back — '
'What we have to do is get out of here before his minions get back,' said Sirius, trying to turn Harry around to face him, but Harry pulled out of his grasp.
