Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all its characters belong to J.K Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author's notes-
Chapter 159: Forbidden Magic
After the hand, a human-looking torso came through the gate.
A female torso with almost pitch-black skin. She had no hair, and her eyes were closed, but she looked almost completely human, though something was off.
She wore no clothes, but her big, exposed breasts had no nipples, and her skin was just too dark to be human, almost reaching a charcoal black.
"That woman is a demon?" asked Selene.
"She doesn't lo-" Sebastian's words died in his mouth when he saw this "woman" open her eyes.
They were completely round in shape and had a solid yellow color, no pupils, iris, or anything that a normal human eye could have.
This one thing alone had made this creature completely inhuman-looking, but then she opened her mouth.
Instead of teeth, she had thousands of long filaments hanging from her mouth, kinda similar to those seen on a blue whale.
The creature let out a loud shriek that no animal on earth could muster.
They then noticed that the creature was now paying attention to them, and instead, her attention was solely focused on the vial resting at the center of the circle.
"That's the payment, go do your job," Harry ordered the demon.
The female humanoid moved her eyes to Harry as if she had just noticed he was there.
Harry pointed at the bed where Astoria was resting, and the demon moved her eyes there.
Her yellow eyes opened widely as if she had just found something very interesting.
"Can she understand English?" Daphne didn't know why she asked that. Considering the weirdness of the situation, this creature understanding their language would not be that strange or important.
But Harry answered anyway. "No, it can't… Some demons can speak human languages, but this one can only read basic intentions."
"Our intentions? How th-ahhh!" Daphne screamed.
"Daphne, what is it?" Selene heard a crunching sound and looked back at the demon.
The creature moved towards the bed, and as it did, more of its body came out of the gate.
At first, they had only seen a floating torso poking out of it, but now they saw the rest of it.
The human-looking torso of the creature was connected to an insectoid body.
The elongated insect body had a black exoskeleton and countless feet that kept tapping on the wooden floor.
By the time the human part had reached Astoria's bed, its insect body was still coming out of the gate and twisting around to fit in the massive room.
"Wait! Stay away from my daughter, you demon!" Sebastian rushed to his daughter's bed.
"Let the demon do its job, Lord Greengrass. It's not going to hurt her, just eat her curse," said Harry.
"Eat the curse?...." Selene asked.
"Yes, this type of demon can feed on all sorts of powerful energies, including curses. Wizards and witches from the east have been using them for centuries… now…"
Beads of sweat were starting to fall from Harry's face.
"Let it do its job… I won't let it harm Astoria…"
"Harry?... What's wrong?" Daphne had recovered a bit from her fright when she saw Harry acting strange.
"I'm fine…" He said while clutching his arm. "Let's get this over with… "
Sebastian took a step back, letting the humanoid part of the demon climb onto the bed and get closer to Astoria.
He was well aware that this was his daughter's last chance to survive, so he had no other choice but to trust Harry's decision to bring this monster to his house.
Daphne and Selene remained quiet and watched in horror as the demon got its human-like body on top of Astoria and opened its mouth widely. The long white filaments inside its mouth started to move, and the demon made a strange noise.
Harry had to do his best to ignore the increasing pain in his left arm and pay attention to the demon, just in case it tried something.
But that was very unlikely. He understood this demon well enough. The centipede demon feeds on powerful sources of energy with the filaments inside their mouth.
At this moment, Astoria had almost no magic and no life force left. The most notable source of energy in her was her curse, so that's what the demon would feed on.
As far as the demon was concerned, Astoria's magic was just some breadcrumbs thrown to one side while her curse was a luxurious delicious meal that it could not resist eating.
"What?!" Sebastian exclaimed when he saw something purple coming out of Astoria's mouth and entering the demon.
"Is that the curse?!" It was the only thing he could think of.
The strange purple mist continued to leave Astoria's body as the demon was happy to devour it.
The event lasted less than a minute, but for the family watching, it felt like an eternity.
As soon as the curse was completely consumed, the demon seemed to lose all interest in Astoria, much as Harry had hoped.
The creature closed its yellow eyes and moved away from the bed.
Sebastian, Selene, and Daphne felt a bit relieved to see this, but they would not feel completely at ease until this demon left their home.
The centipede did not need to be told what to do next. The only thing left of interest for it was the vial with the soul fragment. The creature turned its body in the altar's direction and started to move at a slow pace.
Harry clutched at his arm, and his breathing became more erratic.
"Not now!...." He pleaded.
The centipede demon used its human hands to grasp the vial, but when it was about to leave through the portal…something changed.
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