Waking | Djinn/Arsen

A cottage on the outskirts of a small wizarding village


Djinn stood idly by the window, staring out into the night. One couldn't say what the demon was looking at - assuming he was looking at anything, at all. A fire lit in the fireplace was the only light in the darkened room. In the far corner was a bed, upon which lay a boy whose eyes were closed in slumber.

Though, not for much longer.

Arsen woke with a start, his eyes immediately going to take in his foreign surroundings. He calmed only slightly when he saw his father before he remember everything. He swallowed, his throat feeling very dry as he tried to speak. "Where am i? What am i doing here?" He croaked moving into a sitting up position as he swung his legs off the bed.

"There's a pitcher of water on the side table," Djinn said without taking his gaze from the window. "How are you feeling? You nearly drained yourself. Not the smartest thing you have done, by the way. I had to put you into a deep sleep so you could recover."

He narrowed his eyes in the light and looked at the water. "I don't like water." He said, surely any good father should know that. "How long for?" He asked glancing down at his watch but it appeared to be broken.

"I couldn't let those muggles and traitors think they could walk all over us. Us wizards are by far the better race." He said stretching a little to make sure everything was fine.

Djinn shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said. "I don't exactly keep the place stocked with beverages.

"Perhaps, next time to choose to teach a lesson, you should avoid almost causing irreparable harm to yourself," the demon remarked dryly. He finally turned away from whatever he had been regarding so intently to turn his gaze upon his son.

"It's been two weeks."

He frowned and took a glance of water to sooth his throat. It was feeling like sandpaper and he'd take anything to stop that at the minute.

He got to his feet and placed the glass aside. "What's your problem? Im alive aren't i? I can't die." He smiled. "Burning those muggles up was nothing!" He said the smile not being so big as his father turned to look at him.

"Two weeks?! You're kidding me right? People will be wondering where i've been!"

"Thanks to my intervention."

Djinn regarded the boy silently for a minute. "Perhaps," he replied. "Though, as I understand it, your Winter Holidays are only just ending. I doubt there are many who will be overly alarmed by your absence."

"I've survived before without your help!" He said, he didn't need his father to watch him. He was perfectly capable of keeping himself safe, he'd survived long enough without him.

"How do you know i didn't have plans? I had friends depending on me." He sulked leaning against the wall. "Now i've have to explain my demon father kidnapped me for 2 weeks!" He said gritting his teeth.

With a growl, Djinn was abruptly standing over the boy, lip pulled up in a snarl. "Had I not stepped in, you would be dead," he spoke, voice too deep as he emphasized each word. "Clearly, the lesson I attempted to teach you with the construct was wasted. You're rash, Arsen. Reckless. It is one thing to have a temper; it is another to let it rule you. I have no cause for concern over you, but for this: you do not think.

"Actions have consequences, son. Even for half-demons."

He leant back in shock, why couldn't he move that fast? "You don't know that! I was fine on my own i just needed sun light. I would have been fine!" He said to reassure himself more than tell his father.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists by his side. "I do think! I over think everything and im sick and tired of trying to be what everyone wants me to be cause your never happy even when i am." He said moving to side step his father, he'd had enough trying to please him and be the son he wanted. Nothing ever seemed good enough for him.

"What kind of consequences?" He asked.

"Go ahead and tell yourself that," Djinn sneered. "Next time, I'll leave you to it.

"As it so happens, the only son I have required you to be, thus far, is an alive one. I leave you to do as you please. The only time you see me is when you pull some stunt that will get yourself in trouble. I could interfere with your life a whole lot more."

The demon stalked towards the window at a normal, human-like pace. "Nearly getting yourself killed for one," he growled, then jerked his chin towards the window. "Drawing unwanted attention to yourself for another."

Out in the night, visible only after intense scrutiny, shadows moved within shadows, seeming to come only so close to the cottage.

"Fine!" He said, that was fine by him. Who needed him anyway. He turned and leant against the head of the bed with his arms crossed. He didn't care if he looked childish right now, he was making a point.

"You are always demanding stuff! Back when i clung onto humanity you told me to let go so i did, now i have very little of it left your telling me i need it back! Make up your mind!" He growled. "You expect me to do stuff yet i get nothing in return! You say look after Aria when you know damn well she's going to do nothing but wind me up. I kept her alive didn't i? What more do you want?"

"What are you looking at?" He demanded, he hated that he couldn't even pay attention to him when he was angry.

"No, I'm telling you to know your limits," Djinn corrected him. "You are still maturing. What you can do now is less than what you will be able to even in a year's time.

"You don't have to worry about the construct, anymore," the demon snapped.

He stared hard at Arsen for a moment before finally taking hold of the back of the boy's head and directing his attention towards the shadows.

Only, they weren't shadows.

"Part of your new fan club. Mortalborn. Only four of them, for now. Their presence here is due to the fact that they're stupid enough not to realize I wouldn't leave you unguarded in your recent condition."

There was a disturbance in the night and Djinn gave a huff. "And that would be five. Have some fun, boy."

The dense shadow that had been sitting in the farthest corner of the cottage shot forward, thick black smoke squeezing through the cracks around the window before reforming and charging forward.

For a fleeting moment, pain-filled, horrified screams filled the night. Then, silence.

"And how am i supposed to know my limits? I don't exactly know much about Demons do i?" He said returning to sit on the bed. He'd been left in the dark about everything and now he knew his father none of that had changed. He expected more once he found his father.

"Why what you done to her?" He asked, not totally sure if he was bothered by his comment. A part of him wished to know where she was, the other? Well the other couldn't care less."

He flinched as his father took hold of the back of his head. He still remembered the first time they had met, that had been the only reason he had done as he was told after that.

"What? What do they want?" He asked looking on in horror at the shadow forms outside. He knew demons were going to be after him but not like this. How was this even possible, they hadn't even been summoned.

"What the hell was that?" He asked stepping back as the hellhound sprang out the window. "Can i get one of those?" He asked watching as it simply destroyed the shadows with ease.

"Fine. Formal lessons, it is," the demon declared. "And don't you complain that I am interfering in your life too much."

Djinn looked bored. "Does it really matter? It's done 'nothing but wind you up,' anyway. I couldn't leave it to fend for itself as it was, now could I? It already nearly drowned, the once. It was a learning tool. As it was no longer needed for that purpose, I put it to other uses. Running errands, mostly. The construct is fine. You need never bother about it again."

"I told you that lesser demons fear you," Djinn stated, tone matter-of-fact. "They see you as a threat. Do you know what demons do with threats? They neutralize them. Your little show of power have some thinking they should kill you and have done with it. Unfortunately, they know you are still vulnerable to them."

Oozing back in through the window cracks, the hellhound settled beside it's master, a mass of inky black smoke surrounding it. While the form beneath was vaguely canine-like, no one in their right mind would mistake the hulking beast for a dog.

"The hellhound chooses the demon," Djinn said, resting a hand atop the hound's head. "They're a bit like the familiars of Hell. We shall see."

He nodded. Maybe that was what he needed. A lesson or two to tell him exactly what a demon was. Maybe then he'd know exactly what he could and couldn't do. "I won't!" He said simply shoving his hands into his pockets.

He nodded, she was fine and out of his way. Both sides of him were pleased with that. "What so they waited until i was weak and thought that could attack?" He asked, it made sense it was something he'd do when facing something stronger than him. "Wouldn't killing me make me stronger though? I'd just become a demon like them anyway."

"So i just have to find a hellhound that chooses me? Great." He said moving to sit back on the bed. "So what now?" He asked wondering whether those shadows would be back anytime soon.

"Even demons can die," Djinn said ominously. "You'd do well to remember that." He moved away from the window and the hellhound slunk back to the corner, eyes of burning coal showing briefly.

"I can see about acquainting you with a hellhound."

The demon leaned back against the wall. "Well, now, it may be prudent if you did return to your school. You were supposed to have arrived on the train in the afternoon, after all. I shall leave it up to you, however."

He looked on in shock. Demons were dead how could they die again? "What happens when they die again?" He asked not really wanting to hear the answer. He saw it as he had two lives, the weaker human live which would die first and then the stronger demon side. But even that side would be nothing against some of the demons down there.

He smiled. "Really?" He asked, obviously quite please to hear that. That would be the second present from his father only this one he would know it was from him straight away.

"You mean i don't have to go back?" He asked in surprise. So much for having to blend in.

Djinn gave a nasty smile, but offered no further response.

He cast a glance at the hellhound in the corner, who gazes steadily back at him. "I'll get on it, right away," he said, issuing a rare promise. There was no reason against it; a hound would help look after the boy.

"Frankly, it would probably be best for you to learn whatever you can for wielding your human abilities. Magic, mortal magic, is not something I actually possess," Djinn stated. "However, if you truly do not wish to return, I have decided that I won't make you. You may work on improving yourself in other ways."

"Awesome." He smiled. He'd love his own hellhound, that would definitely scare a lot of people and that seemed to be his biggest hobby at the minute. "How do you find hellhounds exactly?" He asked, he knew his uncle had one but he had no idea where that had came from otherwise he'd had gotten himself one a long time ago.

"No i better get back, i want both sides of me to be at their strongest." He said, no matter how much he would prefer to not go to school he had to. "Well they're gonna have to be no i have a hit on my head."

Djinn nodded in approval. "I feel that is a wise decision," he said. The demon held out a hand. "I'll take you back," he offered.

He sighed, back to his normal boring life. Maybe he'd just have to find someone to wind up or date to lighten things up a little. "Okay." He said taking his fahter hand.

One moment, they were in the cottage and the next they stood on Hogwarts' grounds.

"If you need me, you know how to contact me," Djinn told the boy. "I will contact you for a training session or when I've found you a hellhound, soon."