Demons and Dilemmas- Part I
Chapter 6

Still week four.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Ginny’s hand slammed down on the annoying pick thing that disturbed her sleep daily. She didn’t even like pink! As she made to get up, her hand knocked over the alarm clock which feel to the ground with a resounding crash. Damn, Ginny thought. It’s still in one piece. She looked over at Draco to see if he had woken up, but, as she had expected, he hadn’t. That boy could sleep through a tornado, not to mention the racket she’d made a couple of days ago. Ginny grinned at the memory of it.

She and Draco had just come back after an exhausting day of training. Draco had collapsed on his bed, while Ginny went to take a shower. He’d asked her to wake him up when she was done, because he was prone to falling asleep when he was tired. So, she’d gotten in the shower and was washing her hair, when the shampoo bottle fell. She bent down to pick it up, and as she was getting back up, she lost her balance and knocked into the shower caddy, causing the soap to fall off of its rack. As she teetered, trying to regain her balance, she stepped on the soap and caused the inevitable. She slipped and fell down, bringing everything down with her. By everything, she meant everything. Shampoo, conditioner, soap, razors. Amazingly, as she’d fallen, the blue and green striped shower curtain got wrapped around her body and came down along with everything else. When she’d finally gotten out of the shower, Draco was lying on his bed fast asleep. The people two rooms down the hall had heard the noise, while Draco had slept through it.

Ginny shook her head. Really now, she needed to be serious. Today was big day, no time for jokes. Not to mention clumsiness. If she was clumsy, or sloppy fighting her demon, it could very possibly cost her her life. She got up, stretched and went over to the closet. She picked out a pair of comfy, old, slightly ripped, jeans and a lavender baby tee that had a pale green heart in the center. Her old and trusty clothes. She also picked out a set of dark brown dragon hide boots with very small heels, that Charlie had gotten her for her birthday last year. She hated fighting in sneakers. Boots were much more comfortable for her. After finding a pair of socks, she went into the bathroom to change.

Truth be told, she was nervous. And scared. The outcome of today would seriously affect which animal she would get, or rank, as Kiara put it. Ginny knew being a Warrior was a big enough thing to make everyone realize she wasn’t a baby anymore, but being the highest ranking female Warrior would be so much more satisfying. She snorted. Phoenix. Yeah, right. That would take a miracle.

Putting her hair up in a high ponytail, she went back to the bedroom. Draco was awake and already dressed. He’d also picked out a pair of jeans, which he’d become very fond of, and a dark green tee shirt. He left his hair free to fall where it may. And it still looked perfect! Ginny thought grumpily. Lucky bastard. He was sitting on his neatly made bed, tugging on his black Armani dragon hide boots. Ginny rolled her eyes. How Malfoy like.

“Morning,” Draco said, not looking up at her.

“Morning,” Ginny said, rolling her eyes again. She began walking towards the door, thinking about coffee.

“Are you ready for today’s event?” he asked, standing up and stretching.

“No,” she snorted, turning around. “Ready or not, here it comes though, right?”

Draco chuckled, walking towards her. “Too true, Weaslette.”

Ginny flashed him a grin and went into the kitchen.

“Do you want some coffee?” she asked, getting out a couple of mugs.

“You read my mind,” Draco said, opening the refrigerator. At that moment, the door to the hall opened and Sage came storming in.

“No way in hell!” she declared, as she went into the kitchen. Ginny laughed and shook her head.

Sage Graham was not your average person. She was wild and crazy and would say everything and anything she thought. She didn’t give a damn what people thought. If she didn’t like you, she’d tell you, and Ginny admired that in her. She was originally from Phoenix, Arizona and went to The Salem Magical Academy, as did David. David was a lot like Sage, but slightly more calm. Both had an interesting “hardcore ” style, as Ginny had heard them called before.

Today, Sage was wearing a pair of tight blue jean that had song lyrics written on them in a variety of colors, with a bright yellow “Mars Volta” band tee. Her wavy, dark brown hair fell loose to her shoulders, like it almost always did. Her gray eyes were rimmed with much black eyeliner and turquoise and green eyeshadow.

David came trailing in behind her, looking exasperated. He was wearing a pair of jeans, and a dark red shirt that had “Volcom” written on it in black letters. His black hair was spiked, as it always was.

“Ginny,” David sighed. “Talk to her. Please!” He collapsed into a kitchen chair, beside Draco. The two immediately lapsed into conversation.

“Nervous?” Ginny asked Sage, handing her a cup of strong coffee.

“More like scared out of my mind,” the brunette said, taking the cup. “I mean, how am I supposed to summon a demon? I am failing practically all of my classes at Salem. Why are even supposed to? Isn’t it like, against the law? Dark magic and all, you know.”

Ginny nodded, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach. “Fight the demon, yeah, sure, I’m nervous. But it doesn’t scare me. Using dark magic is what scares me.” She closed her eyes, remembering the diary. Don’t think about it Ginny, she chided herself. Not today.

“It’s not necessarily always dark magic,” Draco commented, jarring Ginny from her thoughts.

“What do you mean?” she asked. If there was a way to summon a demon without dark magic, than she was all for it.

“There are some demon summoning spells which don’t involve dark magic. Wandless magic, I think. Muggles call it Wiccan. And anyway, I doubt the Wildcat would make us use dark magic. The Warriors protect the Light, after all.” Draco explained.

“And Sage,” David said. “When you agreed to become a Warrior, you knew you’d have to fight demons. It’s what the Warriors do. You can’t sneak around it. It’s part of your destiny.”

“I still don’t wanna do it,” Sage grumbled, downing the last of her coffee.

“Want to or not, we’ve got to go, or we’ll be late,” Ginny pointed out, looking at the clock.

The four teenagers finished their breakfasts and head out the door. Ginny was the last one out. As she reached into her pocket for her key, she realized she’d left it inside.

“Malfoy, do you have your key?” she called.

Draco turned around, shaking his head. “No. Just leave it, its not like somebody’s going to break in.”

Ginny shrugged. “Okay.”

They chatted on their way to the gym, where the ‘project’ was going to take place. They reached the gym a few minutes later. Draco and David entered first and Ginny and Sage nearly ran into them.

“Um, this is going to sound really stupid, but, why’d you stop?” Sage asked. Both Draco and David were staring at the room with wide eyes. The two girls pushed through them, into the room. Ginny’s jaw dropped. Now she knew why the guys were staring.

The room had been completely transformed. Instead of the small, cramped room with gym mats on the floor and various weapons hung on the walls, there was a very large and spacious room the size of a small Quidditch stadium. Or a basketball court, in Muggle terms.

The floor was wooden and highly polished with a large white pentagram drawn in the center, which everyone was avoiding. The ceiling was about two stories up, and the walls were painted a light ivory. There was a well hidden door in the far left corner of the room, farthest from the entrance. Ginny supposed that the door must lead to the large glass window high up on the left hand wall.

“Looks like we’re going to be watching,” David said noticing where Ginny was looking.

Sage groaned. “Wonderful. Abso-freaking-lutely wonderful.”

“Y’all are kinda blockin’ the door,” said a male voice, with a strong southern accent behind them.

“Oh, sorry,” Ginny said. The four of them moved into the room, letting Juliana and Texas native, Ryan Anderson, through.

“Impressive, ain’t it?” Ryan asked no one in particular.

Ginny looked over at him. He was a twenty year old Texan who was handsome in a rugged kind of way. Juliana, who was nineteen, had stuck to him like glue. First, she’d been after Draco, but after finding out that he was three years younger than her, she started chasing after Ryan. They made a picture perfect couple. Tall, slim, dark haired vixen with the rugged, handsome, southern cowboy.

It made Ginny sick.

“Well, it is different,” Draco commented.

There was an awkward silence before Juliana said, “Come on, Ryan, lets go.”

She led him away from them like a little puppy on leash.

“I don’t like them,” Ginny muttered.

“I know,” Sage agreed. “He’s- no, never mind. Shut up, Sage.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. Sage had a habit of telling herself to shut up.

“No, go ahead,” David urged. “What were you going to say?”

“He’s got man boobs,” she finished. The other three looked at her, then at each other.
“What! He does!”

~

The ten Warriors-in-training stood in a semi-circle around the Wildcat, who had just come in. Her brown hair was pulled into a neat bun at the base of her neck, and she was wearing a long sleeved brown shirt with jeans which were tucked into brown leather boots. It was obvious that she was dressed to fight.

“Each of you will, in turn, step into the center of the pentagram, and say this spell,” Kiara said, holding up a piece of paper. “The demon will appear, and you will fight. If something unexpected happens, and your life is in danger, I will step in. So, there’s not need to be nervous.”

There were some snorts to this statement.

Kiara smiled, and shook her head. “The rest of you will be in the room behind that window. You’ll go by alphabetical order. Ryan, you’re first.”

He nodded, looking a bit less confident than he had when he came in.

“The rest of you, go on up through that door.”

The other nine turned towards the side door.

“Oh, Ginny,” Kiara said suddenly.

Ginny turned around, while the others continued. “Yes?”

“How’s your ankle?”

“Ankle?” Ginny asked surprised. “What about my- Oh! Right, my ankle.”

She lifted her foot. In truth, she’d forget all about yesterday’s incident. She moved her ankle, expecting to feel a sharp stab of pain.

Nothing.

“It’s fine,” she said with wide eyes. “How did- it’s- how-”

Ginny shook her head. “I’m confused.”

The Wildcat smiled. “Warriors heal much faster than most people. Well, I just wanted to make sure you could fight, so, go on now.”

Ginny nodded and jogged up to the waiting room, as she was beginning to think of it.

It was a plain enough room. The walls were painted a light ivory, with nothing much on them. It had a round kitchen looking table, a few plastic white chairs, a green, red and yellow striped loveseat, a refrigerator and bottled water. The carpet underfoot was a dark green, same as the loveseat.

Ginny quietly padded over to the large window. It was about three feet high and five feet long. Down below, Kiara was explaining the spell to Ryan. He nodded and stepped into the pentagram. The Wildcat went over to the door and stood there, watching. Ginny watched Ryan say something, she couldn’t hear what he said, but it was obviously a spell. Wandless, just like Draco had said.

There was a flash of blue-green light and a tall, scaly looking… thing appeared. Ginny couldn’t come up with anything else to describe it. It looked like a cross between a bald bird and a lizard. Very unattractive. It launched itself at Ryan, who rolled away. Ginny turned away from the window. She would have enough chances to watch the fights. She pushed her way through the others, who she hadn’t even noticed come up. She saw Draco lounging on the loveseat. On closer inspection, she noticed coming closer to him, he was meditating. She sat down quietly next to him. His eyes shot open. That boy had the best hearing of anyone she knew, Ginny thought. He always heard her.

“So,” Draco asked quietly. “What’s going on?”

Ginny shrugged. “I don’t know, I stopped watching.”

“Too much stress?” he smirked.

She yawned. “More like not enough sleep.”

“Then take a nap,” Draco suggested, as though it were the plainest solution in the world.

“Can I?” she asked surprised. In truth, the thought hadn’t occurred to her.

He shrugged. “We’re probably going to be sitting here for a while, you especially. So, why not?”

Ginny yawned again. “I think I’ll just close my eyes for a bit, and if I fall asleep, you wake me up, alright?”

“Sure thing,” Draco nodded.

Ginny curled up on her half of the loveseat as Draco went back to meditating, and closed her eyes. This was going to be a long wait.

~

A hand was shaking her shoulder. Ginny groaned and tried to swat it away, to no avail.

“Weasley,” Draco said. “Come on, Sage is down there.”

Ginny sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes. I must have fallen asleep, she thought. She got up off of the loveseat and walked over to the window.

Sage was standing in the center of the pentagram, feet spread apart, her shoulders set, looking for all the world like a Warrior. With a shimmer a demon appeared. This one looked like a human, a man, to be exact. That meant it must be a higher level demon. More powerful and more dangerous. He was clothed in leather looking rags with a black longbow on his back. He raised his hand and a ball of fire appeared. Before he could throw it, however, Sage lashed out with her leg, kicking him in the chest causing his fireball to go out. The battle began.

Ginny watched with wide eyes as they kicked, punched, rolled, fell. She’d had no idea Sage was that strong. Finally, Sage pulled a long knife out of her waistband and plunged it into the demon’s heart. With a scream, he vanished.

Oh no. Ginny thought, her heart beginning to race. We were supposed to bring weapons. She hadn’t thought of it. Oh no. A loud cheer brought Ginny out of her thoughts.

Sage had come into the room, looking exhausted, but with a huge grin plastered on her face. She’d done well and she knew it.

She thanked the people congratulating her, then said. “Nick, the Wildcat said the you’re next.”

Russian Nicholas Shamankov, 18, nodded, his thick black hair falling into his eyes.

“Alright,” he said, and exited out the door.

Sage walked up to Ginny, still grinning. “So, how’d I do?”

“You did great!” David exclaimed.

“Yeah, great,” Ginny echoed

Sage squealed and launched herself in a hug at David.

“Sage!” he gasped. “I can’t breath!”

She let go of him, still beaming. Ginny smiled at her friend, but inside the sinking feeling grew.

~

“Draco, Kiara says you’re next,” Juliana purred, coming up behind Draco. The four teenagers were seated around one of the tables, chatting. They turned around to look at Juliana. She had her trademark smile on her face, but it seemed quite forced. Ginny didn’t wonder why. She’d just gotten back from her fight. Her clothes were rumpled and she looked tired.

Draco looked at her, then nodded. Juliana walked over to Ryan, as Draco got up. His eyes were shinning with determination. He wants to prove himself just as much as I do, Ginny realized. Draco turned away and started walking. She bit her lip.

“Good luck,” she said softly.

Draco looked back at her. “Thanks.”

~

Ginny stood by the window, watching Draco summon his demon. She was worried about him. Funny really, a Weasley worried about a Malfoy. She watched as, with a flash, a man-demon appeared.

He looked, Ginny thought, like a Viking. Long, tangled blond hair and beard, clothed in metal and leather, tall as a bear, black hammer in his hand and all. This was a demon you did not want to mess with. The head of the hammer itself was as big as a grown man’s fist.

Unlike the other Warriors, Draco did not wait for the demon to attack him. He attacked the demon. He leapt at the demon, knocking it off of it’s feet. The demon gave a roar, his eyes glowed red and he grew another two feet. The hammer doubled in size.

Uh oh, Ginny thought. The demon launched itself at Draco, swinging its hammer wildly. Draco ducked just in time, the demon let go of the hammer, which then rammed into the concrete wall. Where the hammer hit, a three foot long chunk of concrete came off of the wall. If it had landed on someone, that someone would be flat as a pancake.

The Warriors watching gasped. They thought Draco was as good as dead. Even the Wildcat seemed tense down below. She looked ready to leap in at any given moment. Draco himself, however, looked quite calm. He had also somehow acquired a sword. He was taking large, exaggerated swings. The demon swatted him away, and went to dislodge it’s hammer. Draco followed, still swinging.

“Is he trying to get himself killed?” Ginny heard someone behind her say.

No, she realized. He was trying to distract the demon. It would get cocky, and let it’s guard down. It was brilliant.

Just then, the demon had gotten his hammer free. He turned to Draco, hammer raised, ready squash the thing that had taken him away from his meal. Draco swung the sword at the demon’s hammer arm. The demon had gotten over confident, and moved his arm away too slowly.

The sword cut deep into the demon’s wrist, red blood spraying everywhere. The demon let out a howl of pain and let go of the hammer. Draco tried to get away, but the edge of the hammer hit his right shoulder.

Draco staggered backwards a few steps, hand flying to his collarbone. With what looked like to be the last of his strength, he threw his sword at the demon’s chest. With one last roar, he vanished in flames.

Kiara rushed up to Draco, and Ginny let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“Calm down, chick,” Sage said. “He’s fine.”

Ginny gave her a sheepish smile. “Did I look that worried?”

Sage grinned evilly. “Only because you’re crushing on him.”

The redhead gasped. “I am not!”
Sage was saved a retort by the door opening, and Draco and Kiara walking in. Draco’s hand was still on his collarbone, blood seeping through his fingers. His face was gleaming with sweat, but he seemed quite pleased with himself.

“Alright,” Kiara said to Draco. “Just sit down. It should start healing any minute now.”

“The battles will be temporarily delayed, as I clean up the gym,” she explained to the others. “Just stay here, I’ll come get the next person when I’m through.”

The Wildcat turned on her heel and walked out of the waiting room.

A crowd gathered around Draco, all talking animatedly. Ginny cautiously walked over with Sage. Draco sat there, looking kind of surprised at all the people gathered around. He spotted Ginny and raised his eyebrows.

Ginny smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Draco shook his head and turned back to the others.

“Denial,” Sage whispered in her ear.

Ginny swatted at her friend, who laughed.

Out of the four of them- Draco, David, Ginny and Sage- the only one who had not had her battle yet, was Ginny.

She just hoped luck was with her.



To Be Continued…
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