Chapter 15: Circle, Circle, Dot, Dot

One day, out of sheer boredom, the Djinn disguised himself as one of his master's pupils. He threw back his shoulders in pride and draped the white silk befitting of an Egyptian royalty. Finished with his disguise, he made his way down the palace halls walking past some guard and entered the grand library easily.The Djinn chuckled to himself. The army is so easy to fool, but not everyone is as dumb as they are.

"I see someone is having fun with his new glamor spells." A voice called from the center of the hall.

The Djinn grinned and turned around, finding his master scribbling away at the boards again. "Oh whatever do you mean Great Teacher? I'm here for my lesson." He said in his most convincing accent.

His master snapped his fingers and in an instant the glamour spell that the Djinn took so long to put on are washed away.

"You cant fool your master childe." The man chuckled, amused by his demon's little tricks. "Now come, help me copy these diagram for my next class."

Stevens stared at the old demon clock that hung menacingly above the manor's door. It's been watching over the passage of time since the manor was first built ages ago. The demon faces carved into the clock tells about the status of the master. When the master is out of the house, the face will remain neutral. If the is home, it will morph into a maniacal smile. However, if the master is in any type of danger, the face will morph into a grimace. At the moment, the clock showed a flat pensive face, indicating that Harry is indeed in no danger.

It didn't stop Stevens from pacing back and forth worriedly.

"Why are you staring at the clock demon?" Firenze when he passed him. Stevens replied with a glare and turned away from him. He refused to talk to that half-breed mongrel after the horrible fortune telling session he put them through! Besides, Stevens ist very keen on sharing his feelings with anybody.

When the centaur finally left him, Stevens let his guard down and began pacing again, cursing at the fact that he had to do laundry and letting his master out of his sight. After finishing the laundry, Stevens looked everywhere and thought that the boy already went home. So he popped back into the manor only to find it empty, save for a certain annoying horse.

'Of course the boy didn't go home. What was I thinking, that he would save me a piece of my mind and go home?' He mumbled angrily to himself. After spending every second together, he's rather uncomfortable at not knowing where and where his master is. The last time he left his previous masters alone, they ended up following the Dark Lord and dying in a horrifying death. Stevens sighed at the memory a very dead Regulus Black. All those years following his death were hard. Being a genie and having a no master to sustain his life was terribly inconvenient.

So he waited for the boy, he waited long. He even went as far to take some of the laundry with him the so he can iron while he wait for Harry's arrival. He's already thinking of the things he would say, some of which includes the phrase 'You are grounded young man!', which was inappropriate to say since demon servants don't ground their masters, but he would say it anyways. After all, who's going to take care of the boy if it's not him?

As the clock's hand ticks past each numbers Steven's patience began to thin and his paranoia grew. What if Harry's in trouble? What if he tripped and knocked his head on a rock and is being mauled by a rampaging Hippogriff right now? What if he lost his way down on the lake and is swallowed by the giant squid? What he dived down without his mask again and drowned, and then his bloated corpse is swallowed up by the giant squid like a moist Betrie Botts beans? He wouldn't be able to call for help! All of this could be happening and the clock wouldn't know because it could be broken!

"Screw this." Stevens muttered, throwing away a napkin that he's been folding over and over again. "No master of mine is going to be eaten by a giant squid!"

He threw open the main doors with abandon, jumping out of the protective bubble and began swimming frantically. The sudden change in water pressure knocked the breath out of him, but he kept going, even as water fill up his lungs and smothering his insides.

'Djinns can't die. Djinns can't die. Djinns can't die.' He thought to himself over and over again, determined that he's going to find Harry even if it means his human body is wrecked beyond repair. A moment of pain is better than an eternity of wasting away.

Just below the surface of the water he saw him, his idiotic master flailing about in the darkened waters. The skin of his palm is wrinkled like a dried prune, and yet the boy is still swimming in the icy water as if it was August.

Stevens fought against the numbing cold water and grabbed his master's hand. Harry whipped around and relaxed when he saw his genie, who wastes no time and began teleporting them back to the house. With a great big splash they fell in the main entrance, spoiling the newly laundered sheets with lake water. Stevens coughed and retched onto the carpet violently, expelling the water that invaded his lungs.

Like a possessed man, Harry stood back up and began donning his diving mask, tittering about weakly as he walk towards the door. It's obvious that the boy was beyond fatigued, but he kept getting up and muttering about going back into the water.

"Are you crazy?!" Stevens spat, ignoring the searing pain in his lungs. "Look at yourself! You're in no condition to go back there!"

"Cassandra… Cassandra…" Harry muttered between his chattering teeth, his eyes glazed as he stared into the darkened abyss. He blinked, suddenly aware of how heavy his body is on dry land, and how numb his hands and feet are. He heard a soft thud behind him and he suddenly feel very dizzy. With one last thought about his missing familiar, Harry closed his eyes and collapsed.

Harry woke up with a jolt as pain pounded his skull. His hand instinctively went up to his scar, but he found the back of his head aching instead. He must've hit something there, he could feel a bump throbbing painfully. After a few moment of bleariness, he realized that he's back in his large bed, the fireplace near the windows blazing and heating the room aggressively. When he tried to move he found himself wrapped in an absurd amount of magically heating blankets. There is only one person who overreacts like this.

"Stevens!" He called out, gingery getting out of the bed and making his way down stairs. Harry frowned when nobody replied. Usually the genie would be teleporting next to him. "Firenze?" He called out to the empty hallway. Again, nobody answered. tried to shake the pounding migraine off, but the insistent pulse stuck firmly to the side of his head. Harry sighed and reached onto his pockets for Cassandra. She always makes things better for him.

His fingers searched and searched but only found lining of his pokcets, Cassandra nowhere to be found. Then, the events the day before hit him. He remembered meeting Ginny, how the anger and frustration he bottled up exploded in a single moment. He remembered staring at her red hair as she runs back to the castle. Then He remembered how he let Cassandra be swept up by the currents and lost her while he reminisced over people who threw him away.

As soon as it clicked in his head, Harry raced down the stairs and made his way into the gardens, trampling the seedlings that he and Firenze planted weeks ago. He could almost touch the barrier but a pair of strong arms stopped him and lifted his weak body away from it.

"You should be in bed." Firenze said calmly.

"Get. Off . Me!" Harry screamed, struggling against the centaur's massive arms. "You better let me go or I'm going to bury you deep in your gardens you-"

"Calm down Master Harry." Firenze frowned. He doesn't like the crazed look that Harry has in his eyes. He has the eyes of a man that would do anything to achieve his goals. "Everything is under control, there's nothing to worry about." He said, carrying the boy back into the house as gently as he could. Harry broke out of his arms angrily.

"Nothing to worry?" He repeated those absurd words, suddenly reminded of the old headmaster. "Nothing to worry? Cassandra is out there in the cold and you're telling me to not worry?"

"Yes. You are weak and ill and it's would be silly of you to go out there again. Besides, the demon is already out looking for her so swimming after him would be useless in your condition."

"Useless?" Harry flinched at truth in Frinze's words. "Useless?" He repeated, stomping out to the garden in anger. "Stevens! Get over here!" he bellowed, summoning his demon with all the magic in him.

With a loud pop, a very wet and very irritated butler appeared in front of them. "I really wish you would stop dirtying the priceless tapestries with lake water sir." Stevens said, annoyed that his master summoned him in the middle of his search and rescue. He looked up, expecting the boy to be a mess, missing his little familiar and asking for comfort. Instead, he saw a look that he never seen before in the boy. His face hung low in the shadows and his bright eyes darkened with rage.

Stevens smirked in amusement. Ah yes, he recognized that look from his previous masters before. Harry is angry, and angry masters always make the best wishes.

"Teach Firenze not to question the master of the house." Harry said coldly, leaving so many possibilities open in that order. Firenze let the boy go, surprised at the order that he just given. Harry shot one last glare at Firenze before snatching Steven's breathing mask. "I am not useless." Harry said to the centaur.

Stevens bowed in obedience, hiding the gleeful smile he had under his hair. He listened for the wet plop of the barrier before standing up to face the dumbfounded centaur. Screw finding that little snake. Granting wishes is much more fun than swimming in the cold, especially when it includes hurting his least favorite occupant of the manor.

"Now then," Stevens smiled coldly, his eyes glowing golden with the power of Harry's will. "It's time I return the favor for telling me that terrible future, beast."

The centaur huffed and raised a fist. "I can forgive master Harry for wanting to hurt me out of anger and fear, but I no longer can tolerate your mockery of my kind." He pulled his long hair into a ponytail, picking up a nearby shovel for battle. Stevens scoffed, laughing at the idea that a centaur can hold himself up against a genie with a gardening tool.

"Do what you want." He said carelessly, materializing a large wooden paddle as his weapon. "I'm going to have fun breaking you."

No matter how fast he swam, the water pushed back at him like molasses. The November chill finally spread through the lake and without the sun the lake was almost pitch black. The cold made his limbs stiff, and the darkness made him imagined strange beasts that didn't exists. Despite all of that he pressed on, the cold and darkness only spurring him on to find Cassandra. If he's cold and afraid, then little basilisk must've be feeling ten times worse.

In his haste to find his familiar, he swam face first into a large boulder. It's impossible to look for her like this. Already he could feel the cold setting into his bones and fatigue tugging at his consciousness. There has to be a better way!

As he was dancing on the cusps of despair, a strange flicker of blue light caught his eyes. 'Cassandra!' he instinctively thought, diving past the large boulder to follows that only source of light

Carved into the other side of the large boulder was a cavern enclosed with the same bubble material that protects the manor. The massive enclosure almost wrapped itself around the entire side of the boulder. Inside he could see the faint outline of a magical circle that glowed dimly.

Without a seconds thought, Harry swam down to the enclosure and entered the cavern. The floor is dusty and overgrown with moss, the humid air has that same scent of the manor when they first opened it. It seemed like the place has stood there for years. Even then, the massive rune circles carved on the stone floor was still sharp and clear as if it was carved yesterday.

Harry frowned. From what he remembered from his rune chanting book,

a magical circle is used to transport or summon objects, and they always fade after their first use. There is no such thing as a permanent circle. Knowing this fact, Harry arrived to one conclusion, someone else used the circle to kidnap Cassandra.

"Stevens!" He called for his butler nervously, shaken up by the thought that someone else might know about the manor. With a loud pop, a disheveled Stevens tumbled out of thin air, looking worse for wear with a large shovel sticking out of the side of his torso.

"I really wish you could make up your mind and so I can complete your wishes sir, I almost got that beast tamed like you asked." Stevens grumbled, pulling the shovel out with a loud squelch and throwing in on the ground.

"Never mind that. I just found something important." Harry said grimly. Pointing to the magical circle that they've been standing on.

Stevens leaned down and quietly observed the circle. "Can you read this sir?" he said tracing the runes carved on the bed rock, his fingers bumping against the foreign circles and dots.

Harry shook his head. "Barely. I'm not that fluent in runes yet. I can make out some words though… " He pointed. "To Transport, no… To Move … Open… and Road? Path? Anyways, it reminds me of a teleportation circles that robbers use to escape magical banks. Maybe…" Harry swallowed. "Maybe Voldemort finally found me… maybe he's the one who took Cassandra from me." Harry said, the color slowly draining from his face.

"I doubt that." Stevens frowned, unhappy the paranoia is beginning to set back in his master's psyche. "I may not be able to read runes but I can feel the magic behind it. It's old magic, older than The Dark Lord or any of his followers. Besides, I doubt that Cassandra was kidnapped seeing that she slithered herself into this."

"What? Where!" Harry frantically asked, desperate for a clue to his familiar's whereabouts. Stevens pointed to one of the concentric circles placed between the runes. Like Stevens said, the dust showed Cassandra's trail, showing the basilisk's path seconds before her disappearance.

"She stopped here." Stevens said, confounded at the dust trails. "I don't get it. According to the dust, she moved from outside the bubble into the circle, and then she slithered up to here and… that's it. It's like she disappeared into thin air."

Harry sighed, what little hope he had in the begging suddenly vanishing at the face of the impossible clue laid before them. "Cassandra." He hissed in parseltounge, suddenly realizing how much he missed his little basilisk companion. Stevens gave his master some space and went to investigate on his own, leaning down to observe the circle.

The large magic circle covered almost the entire surface of the cave, and inside it lay twelve circles, placed around a pentagram like numbers on the face of a clock. Runes are carved expertly around the circles, creating a magical diagram that the demon never encountered in his life. Despite this it all seemed familiar to the genie, but he couldn't remember where or when he saw it.

While the demon deep in thought about the mystery of the circle, his master was quickly spiraling into hopelessness. It's too dark to continue searching out into the lake, and without knowing what the runes said, they might as well as search the lake blindfolded. 'Maybe I should call it a night and come back with a rune book to translate tomorrow…' he yawned, suddenly feeling the fatigue and cold from swimming in that icy lake. Harry shivered and rubbed his arms to warm them. As worried as he is for his familiar, searching for her in his condition would do nothing but hinder their progress.

The genie noticed his master's yawn and slumped shoulder. The boy must've been so tired. He didn't even long enough to recover before he jumped right back into the water. Stevens took off his mostly clean jacket and offered it to his master. "I'm ashamed that I only have this to offer you, but I'm sure that it would be better than your wet shirt sir."

"Good timing. I'm starting to get the chills." Harry mumbled his thanks and turned around to take off his wet shirt. When he leaned down to pick Steven's jacket off the ground, he noticed dark red liquid filling in the crevices of the runes.

"Oh god Stevens," Harry grimaced, turning around and finding the source of the red liquid to be non other than his butler. "What the hell happened?" He frowned, observing the gaping wound on the side of his torso.

"Blasted Hades…" Stevens cursed, covering his side in a futile attempt to hide his mangled flesh. "That beast managed stab my side during the scuffle... with a shovel nonetheless…" He explained. Noticing Harry's worried stare, Stevens laughed loudly to break the heavy atmosphere. "Don't worry sir, it's nothing but a flesh wound. Your wishes fortified me enough to withstand it. Next time he's be the one bleeding all over the floor!"

"Haha… no. I already feel guilty to Firenze for blowing up at him like that." Harry sighed in relief, glad that he doesn't have to lose anyone else today. "So you're the one that's hurt huh? I guess Frienze is too much for you to handle?" he smirked, never missing a beat to take a shot at Steven's pride.

"Hardly." The butler shot back, embarrassed that he's being seen as equal to that animal. While he's glad that his master managed to at least tease him, it irks him that he didn't win that fight. 'Next time…' He thought.

Harry laughed at the murderous demon and tossed him his wet shirt. "Come on now, stop brooding and take us home. We'll continue lookingtomorrow."

"Certainly sir." Stevens bowed and offered his hand so he could teleport them out. Harry hesitated, prompting the genie to look up at him in confusion. "Sir?"

Harry ignored him and walked back towards the magical circles. The blood from Steven's wound activated something in the runes, and the circles and runes began to glow blue like it just did earlier. One by one, the small circles began to light up and beam up to form a pillar of light. Suddenly the runes that he read clicked together.

"To Move. Open. Path… Stevens, I was wrong! This isn't a cheap one-use teleportation circle. It's a portal!"

"A portal? But where? And why here?"

"I don't know, but I'm guessing each one of these circles leads to a different place. I'm jumping into this one because that's where Cassandra went."

"WHAT?! SIR! As the head of your service staff, your butler, and your trusted advisor, I must implore you to step away from that-"

Harry grinned stepped into the pillar of light, vanishing without a trace. The moment the boy vanished, the flood of light dimmed down, leaving a very dumfounded butler alone in the dark.

"-thing."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed some action to open the second arc!

Question time! To answer Stevens' question, anyone know where the portal leads to and why it was built? XD first correct answer gets a cookie!

See you all next chapter!