Spoilers:       PoA.
Warnings:       shoujoai
Disclaimers:    J.K. Rowling might recognize some of these characters, even
                after I've mauled them.  Takeuchi Naoko might recognize others.
                Miyuu's mine.  Blanca Marina is nickamano's.

                         -<{  An End to Deviltry  }>-
				Chapter Eight
				  Dementors
                                      By
                              St. Suika Roberts
                                In Response To
                          nickamano@btinternet.com's
                               "Draco Devilism" 
                                   Stories

	Hermoine Granger is making out in the common room with Pansy
Parkinson.  Miyuu is basking in the warm, happy energy bleeding off of them,
working on her charms homework with Natsuko.  

	`How did you do that?' the shimmer in the third chair at the table
asks very quietly.

	`With the dementor?' Miyuu asks, twitching seven pounds of
spring-steel in a careful pattern.  The plate on the table turns purple, and
she scowls.

	`It's much easier with a lighter wand,' Harry says, `Yes, with the
dementor.'

	`I'm half-youma, so I drained him a bit,' Miyuu shrugs, `I hadn't
realized it would freak out so much,' she twitches her wand again, and the
plate, finally, turns green.

	`You did it!' Natsuko squeals, snaking in to plant a quick kiss on
Miyuu's lips.

	`With rewards like that, it might not take me so long to learn the
rest of this,' Miyuu smiles up at the girl.

	`Why do you use that wand?' Harry asks, a little embarrassed.

	`It's my fairy princess mace,' Miyuu smiles at him, `My aunt Ami made
it for me out of a howitzer part, and it's been one of my favorite toys since
I was like four.  Hagrid dragged me to Ollivanders, and I got the yew wand
there.  I cloned this one off of it--'

	`Cloned?' Harry interupts.

	`Like a cell-phone.  Copied the energy patterns,' Miyuu turns the
plate green a second time.

	Natsuko returns it to its original white again.

-

	`I'm worried about Professor Lupin,' Harry says, once Miyuu lets him
back into the hallway.

	Miyuu gestures for him to go on, starting towards Gryffindor tower.

	`He was drinking something when I came to visit, and I saw Professor
Snape leave right before I got there.  Whatever he was drinking, it must taste
awful and the cup was still smoking when I left.

	`Did he say what it was for?  What did it look like?'

	`I didn't get a good look, but it was pale and thin and smoking.'

	`As are about a thousand other potions.'

	`Professor Lupin said he'd been feeling off-color, and it was the only
thing that helped.'

	`Very helpful, that,' Miyuu shakes her head.

	`I'm sorry,' Harry says.

	`Did you ask about the Boggart,' Miyuu's statement isn't really quite
a question.

	`How?'

	`Pansy mentioned it.'

	`He was worried I'd conjure up Voldemort.  I was worried I'd call up a
dementor.'

	`There's a spell specifically for fighting them.  Ask Professor Lupin
about it.'

	`How did you fight it, then?'

	`I'm half-youma.  I drained its energy, like it does to other people.'

	`Why didn't it drain you?'

	`Steel blocks dementors quite well, youma less so.'

	`Your "balanced driving gloves"?'

	`Yep.  Powdered tool steel.'

	`Could you get me a set?'

	`Perhaps.'

	`Thanks.'

-

	Natsuko wears her segmi gloves to class Monday.  Miyuu doesn't
comment, but wonders if the armoring will help.

	She does fine in her classes, so Miyuu relaxes a little.

-

	At lunch the preparations for the evening's Halloween feast are
obvious, stacks of pumpkins spilling out into the hallway, coils of orange and
black streamers, and a slight manure smell, telling of live animals somewhere
nearby.

	Miyuu smiles, `This'll be neat!' she bounces into the great hall,
stops to grab a pumpkin and toss it up in the air a few times before setting
it down again.

	Natsuko gives her a quick hug, `I really enjoyed it last year.'

	`Do Wizarding World people put on costumes for Halloween, or Brits in
general, for that matter?'

	`No, not often, anyway.'

	`Oh well.  Queen Serenity is trying to get all of us to, but I don't
think she's having much luck.  Candy sales are up every year, though, so she
might manage it sometime.'

	`Really,' Natsuko smiles, `Do you want to dress up?'

	`Not . . . ' Miyuu trails off, looking at Natsuko, `Only if you will.'

	`Can I wear my Segmi?'

	`No.'

	`Aww,' Natsuko whines, `What will you go as, then?'

	`I'll have to dig though the trunks,' Miyuu smiles.

-

	`Wear that,' Natsuko says excitedly as Miyuu tosses a mess of
translucent pale fabric to the pile.

	`What, the fairy princess dress?  I don't think it fits anymore,'
Miyuu shakes it out, `This isn't . . . ' she holds it up to Natsuko, `This one
wasn't mine, maybe Minako put it in my trunk for me or something, take a look
in the mirror.'

	Natsuko takes it and moves over, and Miyuu continues digging.

	`And it's friend,' Miyuu says, `Also never seen before,' and shakes
out a slightly smaller one, primarily in green and blue rather than green and
grey.

	`Try it on!' Natsuko enthuses, shaking her school shirt off her
shoulders.

	`If you insist,' Miyuu smiles over at her.

	`Zip!' Natsuko orders, a little later.

	Miyuu shakes her own dress, then drops it with a clunk to walk over to
Natsuko.  A gentle tug later the zipper is up, and she walks around Natsuko,
`Good.  It's loose fitted, so it doesn't look too big or anything.  The
highlight colors suit you, too.'

	`You're still naked!' Natsuko complains.

	`You called me over as I was trying to get it over my head,' Miyuu
walks back to her dress, `So it's your fault,' she touches the P3AT, tucked
into the waistband of her underwear, the lanyard around her neck, `and I'm not
naked.'

	`The feast will start soon!' Natsuko complains as Miyuu pulls the
dress on.

	Miyuu fishes out the P3AT, `Zip!' she orders, smiling.

	Natsuko zips her up, then does the walk around, `Very pretty.  Can you
unmask?'

	Miyuu turns a little green, `Like this?'

	`Mmm,' Natsuko picks up one pale green hand, and proceeds to kiss each
nail, a short, uneven crescent of white backed by a gumdrop shape of mint
green, `You're so very pretty,' she gushes, pressing the captured hand to her
bosom.

	`As you wish, my lady,' Miyuu curtsies, then holsters the P3AT under
several layers of concealing translucent material, hiding it completely from
view.  Her wand goes back over her shoulder, most of it disappearing into her
dress somehow, just the last few inches sticking up by her neck.

	Natsuko checks her dress, and finds a matching concealed pocket on
either side.  She tucks her wand into one, but it sticks out.

	Miyuu notices, `Accio safty pin,' and unzips Natsuko, putting a
couple pins on the inside of the dress, `Wand.'

	Natsuko hands it over, and Miyuu adds a couple more pins, shortening
the mace pocket for her wand, test-fitting it once, then zipping Natsuko up
again, `Here you go.'

	Natsuko reaches back, touches it, then shakes her hair down over it,
`Thanks.'

-

	`Wow,' Miyuu smiles at the sight that greets them when they reach the
great hall -- the pumpkins have been carved, and are floating around, each
with a candle inside, the streamers are slithering through the air, and the
smell at lunch turns out to have been caused by the small clouds of live bats
flying around.

	Miyuu glares and Natsuko smiles at her when the room goes silent at
their entrance.  Natsuko makes a deep bow, introducing, `I present Princess
Aino Miyuu, Sergeant in the Dark Kingdom Deployable Force.'

	Miyuu turns her glare at Natsuko, then turns back to the room, `Go
back to your chow, she's just being silly.'

-

	Miyuu, who is quite sugar-high and a bit giddy, dances backwards down
the stairs towards her room, watching Natsuko follow more sedately.

	`How,' Natsuko laughs, `Do you do that?  I'd roll all the way down if
I tried!'

	`Practice,' Miyuu grins, `And not being afraid of rolling down.'
Suiting action to words, she curls backwards onto the stairs, and somersaults
down the half-flight in a flurry of translucent cloth.  She promptly bounces
back to her feet with a slap of her hands and a slight skid as she stops
against the back wall of the landing, her rear foot just touching it.

	Natsuko claps, bouncing down after her, and gathers the smaller woman
close, kissing her gently.

	Miyuu pulls back after a moment, holds out her hand, and leads Natsuko
the rest of the way down the stairs once she takes it.

-

	`What the fuck?' Miyuu's quiet-voiced question cuts through
Dumbledore's rambling, `You're gathering all of us into one place, and leaving
the prefects to guard us?'  She waves at the older students, somehow
commanding barefoot in faded red BDU bottoms and matching t-shirt.

	Dumbledore had already lost his normal twinkle, and at this goes quite
serious, `You should be per-'

	`You are taking everyone competent to search for a murderer, a
probably insane murderer, who was put away for killing thirteen people at
once, and leaving us with twenty-six half-trained, at best, students?  I don't
want to face him over their dead bodies with a mouse-gun and my wand,
headmaster,' Miyuu glares up at him, `Oh, wait, we're still needing four of
the Slytherin prefects replaced, so that's twenty-two half-trained students.'

	She doesn't know whether to be amused, gratified, or annoyed when all
of the firsties from all four houses drift to hide behind her, along with
most of the second-years, and half the third-years.

	The Head Boy glares at her, and the rest of the Gryffindors scuttle
away from him, if not behind Miyuu, and she smiles at him.  He drops his eyes,
and she turns back to Dumbledore, `If he's any sense left, he's left.  This
building leaks like a sieve,' she looks over the professors, `Have any of you
done this before?'

	McGonagall nods sadly, but the rest shake their heads, `OK, then.
Professor, I'd like you at my back, lets put the rest of the children in the
Slytherin common room, and leave Snape and Flitwick for guards,' she looks at
those two, who nod.

	`Dobby!' she calls, and the house elf appears without even a pop, `Go
get my pink trunk, please,' she tells him.

	`Yes, your higness,' he bows, his ears brushing the floor, `Right
away.'

	`It's Corporal right now, so limit the formalities and hurry up.'

	`Yes sir!' Dobby snaps a remarkably good salute, and vanishes.

	`Don't call me sir,' Miyuu starts, finishing after Dobby reappears, `I
work for a living.'

	`Sorry Corporal,' he bows again.

	`Bring my segmi,' Miyuu said, `Then help yourself to a couple
chocolates.'

	`Yes, Corporal,' Dobby is gone and back again before Miyuu has the
submachine gun out of the case, and she sets it and the five ready mags next
to her trunk before shrugging into her armor.  Dobby takes the trunk back when
he leaves.

	One mag goes into the gun, and the rest go into the appropriate
pouches on her thighs, and she slings it, `I'll take point, Professor
McGonagall, you can take the rear, Heads, Professors, and Prefects, watch the
sides, check the corridors while we pass them.'

	The trip to the dungeons is uneventful, other than one of the firsties
and a couple of the seventh-years breaking down in tears.  Dumbledore conjures
bedding for them, and the students are still talking when Miyuu leads her team
of four back into the corridors.

	Three hours of searching finds no one, and Miyuu only takes her kabuto
off, dropping it, menpo still attached, next to Natsuko's sleeping bag before
curling around her subgun next to the girl and falling asleep.

-

	Tuesday morning finds them shivering in the chill, white frost dusting
the grass, as Miyuu glares at the five extra people standing around her, `I
agreed to train Potter, Parkinson, and Granger,' she grits out, `Since they're
not much worse off than Natsuko, so it isn't much more work to PT them,' she
turns on the Patils, Brown, and younger two Weasleys, `You lot, however, just
about died at a moderate pace yesterday.  Six laps, walk if you have to, then
I want twenty push ups and thirty sit-ups.  Any slacking,' she draws her hand
across her throat, `and you're out.  Got that?'

	They nod, and start off at various approximations of a jog, robes
fluttering.

	Natsuko turns back to her shivering students, who are in some
approximation of PT uniform, and smiles, `Let's get going.  We need to lap
them at least twice each, got that?'

	Natsuko smiles, and the other three groan, but they all set off at a
good pace with her.

	Only the young Weasley takes the taunting appropriately, and while she
doesn't manage to keep up, she doesn't get lapped a second time, either.

	Miyuu drops to keep her company as she does her push ups and sit ups,
then tells her `Good job,' as the other four stagger in.

	She supresses the urge to kick the other Weasley when he moves to roll
over after seventeen push ups, `Are you sure you want to do that?' she asks
him instead.

	He lays on his face for a few moments, then does his last three.

-

	Miyuu is rather surprised by how easy it was to skip most of her first
year, and the first month and a half of her second.  A casual mention of this
to Severus, surprisingly, lead to a half-hour rant on the state of magical
education in the Wizarding World, or at least the British part of it.

	`My mother had classes on law, and theory, and a muggle to teach
muggle studies.  Her mother had classes on spellcrafting, healing, Chinese
magic, and ritual.  We haven't had even an unqualified teacher for any of
those since before I became a student.'

	`Why?'

	`Because "students could hurt themselves" with the knowledge, never
mind the fact that the poor students could never afford a tutor for those
subjects, and not knowing them puts them in danger, no, they must be "safer"
ignorant.'

	`Who says we can't have those classes anymore?'

	`Who benefits the most from the poor being ignorant?'

	`Oh.  And they control the school board, and Dumbledore . . . '

	`Either doesn't have the power to overrule them, or is scared to, or
thinks the same way, despite having been, back in the 1850s, a poor kid.'

	`Lucius was on the board, did the CPS investigation take out any of
the others?'

	`Three of them.  That leaves six, and three empty seats.'

	`What to the survivors do?  How do they tend to vote?'

	`Rich men, all, and they've just followed Malfoy.'

	`Joy,' Miyuu frowns, `Can't kill 'em, can we?'

	Severus laughs, `Is that your answer for every problem?'

	`Not every one, but a dead problem doesn't come back and shoot you,'
Miyuu shrugs, `I think that's one of the reasons they like to get us young
adults out of the Deployable Forces.'

---
log:
2006/Nov/2:	Started
2007/Sep/9:	Continued
2007/Sep/13:	Continued