The day after was Harry's birthday, and Lucifer was at Lux, sitting on his comfy leather sofa next to his marble fireplace. He watched the flames flicker lazily as the room grew darker, the vast space eventually lit only by the low amber glow of the fire.
He hadn't received a single letter from Harry, as Hedwig was completely occupied flying messages back and forth to Grimmauld Place for Ron, Sirius, and Hermione.
He figured the snowy owl wouldn't be back to Harry at all before he was scheduled to be extracted after his birthday. He got to his feet, stretching his frame.
Tonight's the night Harry will be retrieved by whoever to be taken to Grimmauld Place... I should make sure all of my things are packed before I apparate straight to Privet Drive.
He walked smoothly into his private bedroom and saw his Owl perched majestically on the brass stand, wide awake and staring directly at him. "Rowena, you know where Hermione is?"
The massive eagle-owl blinked her amber eyes and looked at him knowingly. He didn't have to utter another word; she spread her massive wings and soared out the open window, cutting through the night air as she made her way directly toward Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.
He made sure all of his belongings were gathered from his quarters. As he scanned the room, his eyes caught the beautiful necklace Hermione had bought for him for Christmas back in their third year, laying on his dark wood nightstand. Lucifer grabbed the silver chain and tied it securely around his neck.
Looking down at the brilliant red sapphire gemstone resting against his collarbone, he murmured, "We'll be together again soon..."
He walked out of his room and into the main hall. "I'm off, Makima. I'll be seeing you next summer."
The 'Control-Devil' bowed her head slightly, right palm resting over the heart, as she did. "Take care, My Lo—Lucifer. I will handle it personally if any stray demons choose to rebel and attempt to crawl out while you're away....."
"Good."
Lucifer took one last, sweeping look around Lux and closed his eyes. He focused his intent and 'Apparated.' When he snapped his eyes open, they were glowing a dangerous, demonic red as he instantly felt the rigid magical pressure of multiple wands aimed directly at his chest. He looked around through darkness of Little Whinging and saw about eight or nine cloaked figures standing in a defensive perimeter, their wands locked onto him.
"Lower your wands, everyone! This is absolutely not a fight we'd win anyway," he heard a familiar, calm voice say from the shadows.
"Lupin?" Lucifer asked, his eyes settling on Remus, his former 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' professor, who was stepping closer to him with his hands raised neutrally.
"Lucifer, wonderful to see you again. I must admit, I am not at all surprised to see you here," Lupin said, a small, tired smile gracing his worn face.
"You're not?"
"Enough with the bloody pleasantries, we've got to move Potter, now," A harsh, grizzled voice growled from the front of the lawn.
Lucifer turned his head and saw the scarred, uneven face. "Alastor Moody. Nice to finally meet the real you."
"Yeah, Dumbledore's told me a lot about you, boy. We can discuss your credentials later. Right now, we've got to go, now," Moody said, aggressively hurrying the group along. "If you're even half as good as I've seen in those old security reports, moving Potter tonight will be much safer. But under no circumstance is anyone to slack off! CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" His magical eye spun wildly in its socket as his voice growled loudly across the quiet muggle street.
"So... you Apparated directly onto the property. How?" A tall, bald, dark-skinned wizard asked, stepping out of the shadows with a deep, resonant voice.
"I learned," Lucifer said, shrugging nonchalantly, recognizing the man immediately to be Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"But you are far too young to Apparate legally," Kingsley pointed out, his brow furrowing as he analyzed the teenager. "The Ministry tracking system—"
"Fudge officially made me an adult wizard when the Ministry found out I was 'Merlin's only living descendant," Lucifer explained smoothly. "I only officially learned to Apparate a month ago, and I technically flew over a year back at the Quidditch World Cup when Hermione was in danger. It isn't difficult."
"So the Trace on you is completely gone... honestly, that's probably for the best given the circumstances. I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt." The wizard held his hand out firmly.
"I'd introduce myself, but you clearly already know who I am," Lucifer said, shaking his hand with a brief, firm grip. "So, how exactly are we getting to Grimmauld Place?"
"Brooms," Lupin stated, gesturing to the collection of broomsticks leaned against the Dursleys' garden hedge.
"Why brooms? Wouldn't side-along Apparition be significantly faster and safer?" Lucifer asked, his brow raising in genuine disbelief at the primitive logistics.
"Harry's too young, according to Remus's understanding of the law," A young, pink-haired witch chimed in, stepping forward with a grin.
"So is Hermione, but she Apparated alongside me to Privet Drive and absolutely no one at the Ministry had a problem with it," Lucifer pointed out, shaking his head. "Side-along Apparition isn't a problem with the Ministry's sensors as long as it's the qualified adult wizard executing the spell... The underage wizard is just a passenger." He was quite honestly surprised that a group of veteran Aurors didn't know basic magical transit mechanics.
"Well, we've already got a strict plan set up by the Order that explicitly involves flying, so we have to be doing that. The 'first' signal should be appearing any time now. Let's head outside," Moody's voice growled, cutting off any further debate.
Lucifer let out an irritable sigh, knowing that whatever he said wouldn't change the stubborn plot weaved by archaic minds of magic itself. He followed them all out onto the dark lawn, being the last one out of the house. Reaching into his magically expanded pouch, he pulled out his pristine Firebolt.
"Mount your brooms, that's the first signal!" Lupin said sharply, pointing his finger directly up into the night sky.
Far, far above them, a brilliant shower of bright red sparks flared brightly among the stars, and Lucifer knew instantly they were wand sparks from their advance guard. He mounted his 'Firebolt,' hovering an inch off the grass, and waited patiently until everyone else started to ascend.
"Second signal, let's go!" Lupin ordered loudly as a burst of vibrant green sparks exploded high above the rooftops of Little Whinging.
Lucifer kicked off violently from the ground right after all of them. Because his professional broomstick was vastly faster than all of theirs—except for Harry's, he had to actively lean back and control his velocity to keep from rocketing past the formation. The cool night air felt absolutely wonderful as it rushed through his untrimmed, dark hair. 'I definitely need to see about getting this hair cut the moment I get inside Grimmauld Place,' he thought. It felt brilliant to fly through the air again on a broomstick, since he hadn't gotten to even touch his Firebolt all of last year due to the strict restrictions of the Triwizard Tournament, he did use Nimbus though.
"Hard left, hard left, there's a Muggle looking up through their curtains!" Moody shouted from in front of him. Since Lucifer was holding down the rear of the flying line, he had a perfect view of the entire formation. "We need significantly more height... give it another quarter of a mile climb!"
Lucifer swerved fluidly alongside them, the group moving like a tight flock of ducks flying in perfect formation, and pulled his broom higher into the starry midnight sky, leaving the suburban streets far below.
"Bearing due south!" Mad-Eye shouted through the roaring wind.
"Town ahead!" They all soared to the right in a sweeping arc, so as to not fly directly over the spiderweb of bright streetlights below. "Bear southeast and keep climbing! There's some low, heavy cloud ahead we can easily lose ourselves in!"
"We're absolutely not going through those clouds!" The pink-haired witch shouted back angrily, her voice straining against the wind. "We'll get completely soaked, Mad-Eye!"
Lucifer was incredibly glad to hear her say that; the mention of storm clouds instantly made him remember that brutal Quidditch match against Slytherin at the end of their third year. He had gone much higher back then, climbing into freezing clouds even above where they were flying right now, and had plummeted back to Earth after the Dementors showed up, only to be saved from hitting the ground by Katie Bell—a girl in the year above him, and someone he proudly called a friend. 'I'm sure she's glad to finally get back into regular Quidditch training this term', he thought.
It was a good while of continuous flying, the witches and wizards constantly moving in and out of defensive positions around Harry to shield him from view. "We ought to double back for a bit, just to make sure we're not being followed by Death Eaters!" Moody shouted from the front.
"ARE YOU UTTERLY MAD, MAD-EYE?!" Tonks screamed from the front of the line. "We're all practically frozen solid to our broomsticks! If we keep going off course for your paranoia, we're not going to get there until next week! We're nearly there now!"
"Time to start the final descent," he heard Lupin's calm voice echo through the cold air. "Follow Tonks, Harry!"
Immediately, Harry dipped his broom, following the pink-haired witch down through the darkness. Lucifer dipped his broom Earthbound as well, following the flock of brooms down toward one of the largest collections of artificial lights he had ever seen, London. It was a huge, sprawling, crisscrossing mass of civilization, glittering in sharp lines and grids, interspersed with patches of deepest black where the parks lay.
They soon all touched down softly on a patch of dark grass in the middle of a square, and Harry was shivering violently. Lucifer could easily hear his friend's teeth clattering together rhythmically, even from a distance. Moody stepped forward, holding a silver object above his head that looked exactly like a muggle cigarette lighter, and began clicking it sharply.
The nearest streetlamp went out with a loud 'pop', its light sucked directly into the device. He did this in rapid succession with every single lamp and light within a hundred yards, plunging the square into deep shadow.
"Borrowed it from Dumbledore," Moody muttered, pocketing the Put-Outer. "That'll take care of any nosy Muggles looking out of their windows, see? Now, come on, quick across the street."
'But wouldn't the Muggles find it significantly weirder that every single light on the entire street just simultaneously went pitch black?' Lucifer thought dryly to himself, shaking his head at the flawed wizarding logic.
He followed the Order members across the road and onto the pavement. Harry's guard flanked him on just about every single side, creating a wall of cloaks. 'I wonder if any of these people actually know how horribly Harry gets treated at his aunt and uncle's house... probably not. Dumbledore probably has that little tidbit kept entirely to himself, or shared with a very select few.'
Lucifer waited on the pavement alongside them, standing between Number Eleven and Number Thirteen, Grimmauld Place.
"Number Twelve is magically hidden via a Fidelius Charm..." he muttered quietly to himself, remembering how he had already broken into this location once back in the past timeline to fully collect the 'Black family's' extensive dark library.
And it was indeed exactly as he remembered. Before his eyes, the heavy brick structures suddenly began to grind, pushing Eleven and Thirteen aside as Number Twelve expanded from the ether, looking exactly like a building being inflated with helium.
"Ah, there you are," Lucifer smirked to himself, his heart quickening slightly at the realization that he was going to be seeing Hermione again real soon.
"Come on, hurry up inside," Moody's voice growled, shoving Harry forward.
Lucifer followed the group up the worn stone steps. The heavy front door at the top was black with peeling paint, looking incredibly shabby and scratched. The heavy silver door knocker in the dead center was large and intricately shaped like a writhing serpent. Lupin pulled his wand out and tapped the wood once.
Lucifer heard a sequence of loud, metallic clicks echoing from the other side that sounded like heavy locks turning, followed by the scraping clatter of security chains. The door creaked open into a dark interior.
"Get in quick, Harry," he heard Lupin whisper urgently. "But don't go in too far and absolutely do not touch anything in the hallway."
Lucifer stepped over the threshold right after Lupin and Harry, and his nostrils were instantly bombarded with a revolting, heavy scent—the exact kind of smell you'd find in a damp, dusty, completely derelict building that hadn't seen fresh air in decades. He knew the house was currently inhabited, but it possessed that ancient decay all the same. He looked around dim hall and decided he wasn't going to stand around waiting like a child; Lupin's orders hadn't been directed at him, after all.
He pointed a finger to his own eyes, channeling a fraction of his power to give himself the ability to see clearly through the dark. The interior looked just as shabby as the front door, looking even worse in some rotting spots of the house.
He had barely gotten far into the hallway when he heard a soft, rhythmic hissing noise, and the old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life along the walls. They cast a flickering, insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper and the threadbare carpet of the long, gloomy hallway, where a cobwebbed chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crookedly on the walls.
He 'fluidly' dispelled his night vision as the gaslight took over. A door at the far end of the gloomy hall creaked open to reveal Molly Weasley, who ran up to Harry immediately, enveloping him, completely pretending as though Lucifer weren't even standing right there in the room.
"Oh, Harry, it's lovely to see you!" Lucifer heard her whisper loudly as she engulfed the boy in a bone-crushing hug. She pulled back quickly, her hands resting on his shoulders as she began to examine his pale face critically. "You're looking significantly better than how I last heard from the guards."
She finally turned her gaze to Lucifer, offering a tight smile. "Thank you for taking care of him these past few days, Lucifer."
"Someone had to do it, because Dumbledore clearly wasn't," Lucifer said, his tone flat. His blunt words caused quite a few audible gasps from the surrounding Order members who had just entered the hall, "What? It's the absolute truth," he countered, looking around at them. "The Headmaster would have rather left him to suffer completely alone at the Dursleys' house after everything he went through."
"That's enough now, we can discuss the logistics later..." Lupin interjected smoothly, stepping between Lucifer and Molly to keep the peace.
"Yes, quite right. Oh, he's just arrived, and the official meeting has already started downstairs," She said, her voice hurried as she tried to usher Harry toward the kitchen.
Lucifer didn't move an inch toward the stairs. His dark eyes scanned the gloomy corridor as he asked the only question that mattered to him right now. "Hermione. Where's she?"
xxxxx
Author's Note
If you want to Read my Complete book, including 8th Year, Marriage and having kids, ahead of everyone.
Support this novel, join me on Patreon!
Link - patreon.com/SmutDxddy
We have a stockpile upto Chapter 1030 for you to binge-read! 😋
Playing Cards with Pregnant Hermione on a n*de beach, if you'd like to Read now! 🍼