FicWad

Chapter 36 - Angels and Demons

Voldemort was stunned, "/Sex/is more powerful than chaos?"

Abaddon nodded, "Let me tell you how it is.

"The fifth century, before the Common Era began, was a golden age of peace, prosperity and commerce in Greece, or rather, Athens. But by sowing a few well-placed seeds of discontent I was able to get the Peloponnesian League to attack the Athenian Empire.

"Oh it was glorious! Rape, plunder, rape, murder, rape and destruction on a scale never before seen in history."

"You said rape three times."

"I like rape. In any case, the war dragged on for decades until one lone temple of Astarte put it's dainty foot down and said, "Put down your weapons or else!"."

"Or else, what?"

"There would be no sex. Period."

"You could still rape."

"Rape isn't about sex, it's about control, violence and brutality, and no, Astarte herself prevented that."

"How?"

"The bitches grew teeth. Long, sharp, venomous teeth."

"So, all you had to do was hold their heads!"

"No, you don't understand, these teeth were vaginal dentia, cunt's that could bite a man's cock off."

"And that ended the war?"

"That's not how history recorded it, but yes."

"And she's here, at Hogwarts?"

Abaddon nodded.

"So where do we go?"

"Cardiff."

"Why Cardiff?"

"Why not Cardiff?"

Both men left the Room of Hidden Things, stopping only to give Filch a handful of scrolls and candles.

"Place these items, one scroll, one candle, each, on the each of the professor's desks. Oh, and the school nurse as well. Then forget that you did."

Filch nodded and set about his assigned task.

Voldemort looked at the Lord of Chaos quizzically.

Abaddon answered with a Gaelic shrug, "Didn't want to waste the trip."

)O(

An eagle-owl with bright, silver talons circled the great hall until Millicent entered. With a decidedly un-owl-like squawk it dove to the flagstones at her feet and bowed its head even as it lifted one leg bearing a letter, with the Royal Seal.

Millie dropped to one knee and relieved the majestic bird of its payload, then stood and curtseyed.

"Do you wish to wait for a reply, noble bird?"

The owl, puffed up from the Witch's deference, nodded once.

Millicent opened the letter and swallowed hard.

"Anybody got a quill?"

Susan handed Millie one of the self-inking variety.

"The fifteenth of January will be fine." She said aloud as she penned the note. "Susan, would you please tie this RSVP on the Royal Owl, I'm afraid my hands are too shaky."

Her Coven Sister knelt down to tie the response onto the beautiful bird's leg, stood, and, following Millie's lead, curtseyed as well.

"What is it, Millie?"

"Apparently Pansy and I have been invited to Buckingham Palace in three days."

"We'll be sure to get you dolled up for the event."

Millie smirked, "Doll yourself, Luv, we're to bring our families and that means the whole Coven."

Susan paled, then ran off to the apartment to warn, um, share the good news with all her coven sisters.

Harry stood in the great room with all the Witches holding onto his cloak or each other.

"Grab on Susan, we're about to portkey to the Leakey Cauldron, from whence we'll swoop down on Gladrags and Madame Malkin's."

Madam Malkin swallowed hard seeing the Coven for the second time in a single school year, and needed to sit down when she learned that she would be preparing two dozen mages for the Royal Presence.

"Oh, Harry, will you help me with this, please?"

Harry followed Millie's voice into a fitting room as she explained, "I've had this fantasy for a little while . . ."

The sounds coming from the fitting room were getting interesting, and louder, when they suddenly ceased. Hermione went to investigate and found Luna guarding the fitting room door, arms crossed, wand in hand.

"Silencing charm," she explained,"and I'm next, sister, so get in line!"

"I think I'll let Poppy follow you, Luna dear, she always carries replenishing potions with her."

)O(

The Royal Reception was small and private, only Harry and his Witches were in attendance along with the PM and Amelia Bones, Minister of Magic.

The Queen, the very picture of decorum, the Prince and Princess of Wales and Princes William and Harry, all received Lord Potter and the Coven Witches.

Queen Elizabeth thanked them all, but Millicent and Pansy in particular, for services to the Royal Family and added that she would look forward to seeing Lady Millicent and Lady Pansy in June, on her, that is to say, the Queen's Birthday.

When Millicent looked confused, Princes Di explained, "You will both be honored and then afterward required to be addressed as "Dame Millicent Potter" and "Dame Pansy Potter"."

The official reception done, everyone relaxed a bit. Prince Harry, in particular. The young ginger prince sidled up to Harry and asked, "All these beautiful girls are witches?"

"Yes, your Highness."

"All your Witches?"

"Yes, your Highness."

"Lucky bastard, um, oops?"

Harry laughed, "It's all right, Highness, I agree with you one-hundred percent; but, just a word to the wise?"

The prince nodded.

"You live in a fishbowl, Highness, everything you ever say or do will be recorded, filmed or photographed, and, if I may?"

"Go on."

"I know you've been smoking, and I'm sure your Mum and The Queen know it too."

"How did you know, magic?"

"No, Highness, you have nicotine stains on your fingertips and there's an aroma of eau de cigarette about you."

"I'm sure I'll hear about it at home." Prince Harry groused, walking away.

Poor kid, Harry thought, if he were just a working class kid from Brighton no one would care if he wanted to be a yob, but he'll never get the chance. I wonder if he's ever read "The Prince and the Pauper?"

A shrill whistle sounded from somewhere in Amelia Bones suit coat.

Her Royal Highness raised an eyebrow at this, and said, "You are excused, Minister Bones."

"I do beg your pardon, Your Majesty."

Amelia curtseyed and left quickly, only to return, "Majesty, Highnesses, I'm dreadfully sorry, but there's trouble in Cardiff, reports are coming in from the City Centre about trolls wreaking havoc."

Pansy's eyes lit up.

The Royals graciously excused the Witches and wizard. Just as Harry was activating the ministry portkey he heard a stern, woman's voice call out "Harry!" and saw Prince Harry cringe.

Harry, the warlock, had his signaling mirror open even as he was heading to the floo. "I need everyone suited up and ready to go in five minutes, please have our armor ready, Dobby!"

The Coven Warlock called over to Amelia, "Mama Bones, how many trolls?"

"Looks like half a dozen, no, make that seven - and one wizard whose power reading is off the scale!"

They continued to talk through the mirror as he spun through the floo to land in his Hogwarts apartment. He placed the mirror on a table then stripped while awaiting Dobby with his armor.

"We're going to need all your obliviators on this one, Mum, and any help we can get from the Aurors corps."

"Already called them, they're getting their portkeys as we speak."

"Right," he said, stepping into his fatigue trousers. Even as his team was dressing a small squadron of Hogwarts elves were snapping and buckling the basilisk hide armor in place on all of his Witches.

"Same rules as last time, ladies. Nobody engages Riddle but me, understand?"

"Yes, Harry."

"I love you all, please, please don't take chances."

"Harry?"

"Yes, Astarte?"

"I have to come, Abaddon is there. You can't face him, I have to."

"Can he hurt you?"

"If I let him."

"Then don't let him, okay?"

Poppy entered, followed by Tommy Gaunt and Ginevra Weasley.

"Poppy, you're not cleared for combat."

"No, milord, but I am a fully qualified healer. If anyone gets hurt I want to be there."

"Tommy, I just got a brother, Idon't want to lose him."

"Just here to see you off, big brother."He grasped Harry's hand, "Do be careful, all right?"

"Right." Harry tossed a long cord that everyone knew would be the portkey to Cardiff. "Witches of the Coven of the Four Houses, today Voldemort breathes his last, he's lost his Horcruxes, Tommy is free. He's mortal. Let's show him what that means!

"/Portus/!"

Just as Harry activated the portkey Tommy Gaunt grabbed the cord and Ginny plastered herself against Tommy's back.

A sound like a large truck being mangled greeted them as they arrived on Dumballs Road. A small modular building was being pounded by a cave troll wielding a large, spiked club. The troll seemed to be enjoying the sounds of screams coming from within the metal structure.

Harry quickly scanned the area for more trolls but couldn't see any for the jumble of buildings and large transports in the area.

"Take it out, Harry!" Astarte said, and concentrated, adding her power to his blasting curse. "/Reducto/!"

For all its size, a troll has abrain about the size of a kitten's. This one stared at the large hole that had just appeared just below its ribcage, tried to bellow, but found it impossible to do without a diaphragm. It just had enough time to look worried, and then fell onto its back with a sickening squelching noise.

Astarte threw up both arms and yelled "Goal!" Then, in a more serious tone said, "Let the Witches take out the trolls, we need to find Riddle.

"Poppy, sweetheart, set up your field hospital here, Tommy, Ginny, help her, and I swear, if any of you stowaways get hurt I'll put you over my knee!"

Tommy looked like he wanted to say something but then he just nodded. He was, in fact, a fifteen year old with no practical experience in combat magic, where Harry was a blooded warrior mage, many times over. It didn't matter that they were nearly the same age; Harry was older, a lot older.

"Five groups of four," he ordered, and the quads formed immediately, "Hermione and Luna, you're with me!"

"That leaves Pansy's group with three!"

"Pansy knows how to take out atroll, don't you, dear?"

Harry's /Prima Vipera/smiled demurely and said "Yes, dear!"

Popping sounds of multiple apparitions signaled the arrival of the Auror Corps, Amelia Bones leading them.

"We've got half a dozen trolls in Victoria Park, Minister!" one excited auror shouted.

"You three, stay with Lord Potter, the rest of you, with me!"

"Okay, kid, we've got it from here." The veteran auror announced.

Harry bit back a sarcastic comment, "Astarte, Luna, see if you can locate Riddle or Abaddon, or both."

A dark shadow passed overhead and the quad formed by Susan, Hannah, Mandy and Padma looked curiously at the small can that had been dropped in their midsts.

"Hit the deck, shields!" Tommy screamed at the top of his lungs.

Harry and the nearby Coven Witches dove for the ground as the can exploded, the shrapnel was mostly deflected by their armor, but the force of the explosion nearly deafened them.

The three aurors looked confused for a moment, then fell dead, riddled by tiny bits of steel.

Harry wanted to run to his Witches, but knew he had to stay in the fight. He was the only one who could end this. He looked up and saw an honest to God angel, with Riddle's features, from before his "lizard man" phase.

"Riddle? Since when did you become a messenger of God?"

"God? Oh no, never God's." The angel's voice was doubled, as if two people were speaking the same lines simultaneously, "You see, Harry, the Almighty and I had a slight disagreement and I lost. So I, along with a few allies, was relegated to the role of chaos."

"So you're not Riddle?"

"I never said that." He said, tossing another can into the space between two buildings. When this one exploded Harry could hear the screams of men and women who had sought the safety of the corrugated metal walls only to find them inadequate to the task.

"Reducto! Incarcerous! Sectum Sempra! Bombardia maxima!"

The combined Riddle-Abaddon managed to avoid all but the last hex and spun away like a wobbly cricket ball.

"Poppy we've got Witches down!"Harry shouted as he un-pocketed and enlarged his broom to chase after the daemon with a Riddle grafted on.

With Astarte on his shoulder, he climbed to try to get a better view of the dark angel that had been raining death and destruction on Wales.

The only problem with /that/strategy was that it made Harry too good a target, a dark spot in the light sky, and a volley of well placed curses spun him around and shattered his broom. Astarte leapt away so that Harry could levitate or apparate without having to worry about her.

Falling, Harry concentrated on the tallest building around, a shipping warehouse, and apparated to the roof. His downward momentum was redirected and he skidded across the roof, just managing to hook a gauntleted hand on the edge. He hung there for just amoment, then pulled himself up. With any luck, the demon he was fighting would look on the ground for his remains.

Harry ran to the other side of the roof, and, as he'd expected, the angel hovered ten meters below. Astarte fluttered to his shoulder.

"Take careful aim, Harry, right between the shoulder-blades, I'll help. Ready?"

Harry nodded and sent a cutting curse, precise as a laser, to Astarte's aim point.

Riddle-Abaddon plummeted to the concrete, screaming all the way down.

Harry and his goddess apparated to the ground and approached the mass of blood and feathers cautiously.

As Harry got closer he could see that the angel's limbs, and wings, were twisted to form unnatural angles.

"That . . . hurt."

One hand, with two fingers missing, rose from the fallen body and exploded with concussive force.

Astarte shrieked in pain as she was propelled up and away from the fight.

Harry was blown back out of the alley to land painfully at the feet of a black-uniformed Cossack.

"My lady zendz her regardz - I am to kelp you."

)O(

Pansy led the charge of the Vipera against the half-dozen trolls in Victoria Park. Blasting and cutting hexes were not powerful enough to penetrate a troll's rhinoceros-like hide, but she had trained Harry's Vipera for this, and trained hard.

Harrys Prima Vipera cast a/sonorous/ charm on herself and made a sound not unlike that of a braying donkey. All six trolls turned to face her.

"Just above the sternum, sisters!" she shouted, "On three, two, one . . . diffindo!"

The combined power of six cutters, each as precise as a laser and many times more powerful, decapitated the largest troll.

The next largest answered the deep, braying war cry, only to be felled by a combined reducto to its sternum. It simply keeled over, face-down on the asphalt.

The remaining four trolls dropped their clubs and, as one, fell to their knees, placed their hands and foreheads on the ground, kowtowing to Pansy.

"Now what?" Pansy asked.

"We're gonna need someone who speaks troll." Tracey said, "Any ideas?"

)O(



Harry got painfully to his feet,"What is your name, please?"

"Sergey."

"Then, Sergey, please help my Witches with the trolls."

"I cannot, I am to protact you."

"You can't fight this guy, only Ican do that."

"Da, chou are doink zo vell?"

Harry took a deep breath, "Just getting my second wind."

The angel, half his face bloodied, shuffled out of the alley, murder in his one good eye.

"My purpose, my function, my Raison d'etre, is to bring chaos, pain and suffering to the world."

"Well, now you know what it feels like."

"You will know what it is to suffer before I'm through."

Harry moved left, Sergey moved right and Riddle-Abaddon moved forward.

The battle-damaged angel extended his mangled hands.

Harry formed a powerful protego just as Sergey threw his knife.

Riddle-Abaddon caught the Cossack's knife with his right forearm. Wincing in pain, the bloodied angel pulled the knife out with his left hand and sent it, along with a powerful banisher, to Harry.

The shield absorbed the banishing spell, but the knife's momentum carried it through the barrier where it stuck to the hilt in Harry's right shoulder.

As Harry fell to his knees in pain he heard someone cry "No!"

Turning, Harry saw Tommy Gaunt running toward him.

"No more, d'you hear me? You are not going to kill anyone else!"

"Oh no? Watch this, Avada kedavra!"

Sergey crumpled to the ground.

"You bastard!"

The Abaddon voice of the angel chuckled and said, "True, too true."

"You'll have to go through me to get to Harry!"

The angel half-laughed, "Not aproblem for me."

"No!"

It was Riddle's voice this time,"Whatever you do to him happens to me, he's my /master copy/!"

"Oh, so you're the template for this pathetic excuse of a dark wizard?"

"Yeah, well, not my finest work,"the boy had guts, he wanted to live, but, more than that, he wanted Riddle dead so that she could live and that gave him to courage to say, "Kill me and be done with it!"

"Okay, /Avada ke-stupefy/!"

Tommy crumpled on the spot.

"Oh damn, I meant to say Avada kedavra. I hate having a split personality sometimes."

Harry wanted to take the angel's mind off Tommy, "You know there's a prophesy about us, right?"

"Yes, so?"

"One must die by the hand of the other."

"Again, so?"

"Funny thing, lots of people have tried to kill me, and none of them have succeeded."

"Yes, but I have something none of them had?"

"And that is?" Harry asked.

"Riddle's hand." Abaddon said, smiling a broken toothed smile.

The Angel of Death, Lord of Chaos, raised his left hand. Harry could almost feel the power building as he prepared to apparate away. He felt, rather than saw Astarte return to his shoulder.

"Diffindo!"

It was a new voice, a woman's voice.

The angel's hand fell to the ground.

Harry and Abaddon looked in shock at Bellatrix Lestrange leveling her wand at the Lord of Chaos.

Abaddon's other hand came up and the force of his wrath blasted Bellatrix into the bricks of the warehouse wall.

"Enough!" Harry screamed. Powered by his divine ancestress he sent a string of offensive curses, all with deadly accuracy. "Sectum Sempra! Diffindo! Reducto! Bombarda maxima! Inflamare!"

Pulling the knife from his shoulder he threw it into the mass of blood and charred feathers that had been angelic just a few moments before.

The ruined body was slashed, rent, pummeled, incinerated and stabbed. That part of Abaddon that was immortal clung to existence, you couldn't call it life.

Astarte fluttered down to the mass of quivering angel meat and said, sweetly, "Have we learned our lesson yet?"

A sound like gurgling flatulence issued from the mass.

"I'll take that as a yes.

"Harry, take care of our Witches, won't you?"

Harry nodded.

"I'll be seein' ya, baby."

"You better, Mum."

"Yeah, yeah, lend us your mirror, won't you?"

"Sure."

Harry laid the signaling mirror down on the ground and smiled as his Goddess Mum stepped into it, enlarging it just enough to allow her and most of the carcass that had been Abaddon and Riddle to pass through to the Between Lands. The reflective glass shimmered as though it were water pulling what looked like a mostly plucked, burned swan with her.

When the surface of the mirror stopped shimmering he guessed it would be safe to retrieve it.

But the surface remained agitated, then began to grow. No longer a pocket mirror, now it grew to three by three meters and shapes began to erupt from the newly created portal.

Twelve robed angels of malevolence smiled down on the exhausted wizard.

One angel held what was left of Abaddon close to his breast and Harry watched in morbid fascination as the Lord of Chaos reformed before his eyes.

Harry shook his head in disgust,"Can't I get a fucking break?"

At their heads were the Four Horsemen; Pestilence, astride a white horse; War, his red steed breathing sulfurous fire; Famine, white ribs showing through his black, emaciated horse's flanks and Death, on a horse of pale green, not the green of summer, but the green of amoldy grave.

Their smiles neither cheered nor comforted.

The angelic host, beautiful and terrible chorused in all the languages of the world, living and dead.

We are become DEATH, the destroyer of worlds, look upon us and despair!

There was a sound like the glass breaking from a thousand windows and Astarte, full sized, bound in chains soared up from the mirror. She curled into a tight ball, then snapped open, arms, legs, wings and tail, shattering her chains.

The goddess flew to the asphalt and waited.

Padma limped forward, Helena to her left, Mandy to her right, then Daphne, flanked by Bella to one side and Cissy to the other. Still more came, Myrtle, Angelina, Minerva. Millicent, Glynda, Pansy, Su, supporting Susan, Tricia, holding Hannah, and Millicent carrying Mandy.

In just a few moments, twenty-one Witches of the Coven of the Four Houses had formed a circle. As one they knelt, placed their wands on the ground, and raised their hands.

The horsemen and their angelic host laughed, and in many sneering voices, shouted, "Do you think abasing yourself before us will win you mercy?"

Hermione spoke for the Coven, "We give you this one chance. Return to the Between Lands, and never enter the Earthly plain again. Go back. Or know oblivion."

The host laughed.

Hermione shook her head, sadly.

As one the Witches joined their raised hands, palm to palm. In that moment, every witch in every land all over the world spoke with the same voice, each witch in her own language.

The Coven's voices, clear and beautiful, blended as they said, "Oh thou, man. Who can only mark the world by scarring it, undeserving of the gift of the Mother Goddess, who bore all magic in hard labor, pouring forth the blessed gifts from her womb. We do now repent that we have ever shared with our sons these precious gifts and do now reclaim all magic for ourselves and our daughters, in the Name of THE Mother Goddess, living and eternal, so say we all, so mote it be!"

Pestilence, War, Famine, Death and the angelic host had just begun to appreciate the scope of that simple declaration when they simply ceased to be.

For them, there would be no sanctuary in the Between Lands; they simply disappeared, never to reappear in any of the infinite universes.

Oblivion.

Every witch in every land, still connected, received the gift of the Goddess, the bringer of life. Magic would be their responsibility, and theirs alone, until the time came when men would prove themselves worthy by turning away from the path of destruction.

It would be a long wait.

Hermione, tears running down both her cheeks, sobbed, "I'm sorry, Harry, we're all so sorry. You need to wait here, love, we'll be back. The Mother Goddess summons us and we must obey."

Saying this, the Coven, along with Astarte, faded, elf-fashion, leaving Harry scarred and bleeding on the tarmac. Twenty-one wands remained behind.

"P-Potter . . ."

Harry got painfully to his feet and stumbled over to Bellatrix, lying in a heap on the ground. He dropped to his knees and begged her, "Stay with us Bellatrix, c'mon, Poppy's here, we can fix this."

"N-no, just, h-hold me, hold me p-please?"

He looked up in desperation and saw Tommy Gaunt, looking dazed and confused.

"Tommy, get Poppy, /please/, and hurry!"

He sat painfully on the ground next to Bellatrix and carefully wrapped his good arm around the bewildered former death eater.

"This . . . is . . . nice . . ."

"One of the things I love about my Witches is the cuddling; we just sit, y'know, to be close, like this. It's like a drug; we can't get enough of each other. We thrive on each other's touch. Sometimes I think I need to go away just to be by myself for a bit but then, y'know what?

Bellatrix?

Bellatrix . . . Belle?"

She was gone.

With just the ghost of a smile on her face.

Running as fast as they could, Tommy and Ginny arrived with Poppy in tow.

There was Harry, a single tear running down his cheek as he said, "Shhhhh, she's tired - had a hard day, y'know?"

Tommy knelt on the other side of Bellatrix. "I'll take care of her Harry, why don't you go with Poppy, okay? That's a nasty looking wound you have there."

Ginny helped Harry stand.

"He's a good guy, Ginny, you could do a lot worse."

As they stood, he looked back at Tommy and Bellatrix, and, just as Tommy reached down to close her eyes, Harry softly sang, "Sleep my love and peace attend thee . . . all . . . through . . . the night . . ."

The two witches barely got Harry to the hospital tent when pain, exhaustion and loss of blood finally overtook him.