Who avenges the vengeance demon?
Title: Who avenges the vengeance demons?
Author: akat
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own BtVS or Harry Potter.
Spoilers: BtVS through Season 3. HP through Book 3. Takes place during BtVS Season 3, after ‘The Wish’.
Summary: In her eagerness to strike back at the Slayer, Halfrek had overlooked one teeny tiny detail.
Word Count: 2240
A/N: This is a sequel to Destiny’s Fool.
+++
The vengeance business was not as glamorous as it seemed. Those seeking revenge were usually small picture people, often lacking both scope and ambition. Creatively interpreting their wishes was a standard part of the job.
Some vengeance demons had a knack for it; they were the ones who became legends in Arashmaharr. Halfrek herself was known for a notably devious wish or two, but no one surpassed Anyanka. She was the master at it, a true artist, earning both admiration and envy from Halfrek. Her work with the Chase girl was inspired, easily her pièce de résistance -- only to be undone by a Vampire Slayer and her friends from the Island of Misfit Toys. Now the Patron Saint of Women Scorned was mortal; a high school student, no less. It was embarrassing and degrading.
Vengeance didn’t stop for anyone, however, and neither did Halfrek. Though she mourned the fate of her friend, she continued helping abused and neglected children get their revenge, devising horrific punishments for the adults who wronged them.
Then the Potter brat made his wish.
I just wish he had someone who believed in him and stood by him, right from the beginning, someone who would give him something to fight for and not just against.
Halfrek suddenly found herself at a crossroads. She could find someone, perhaps a Hogwarts student outside of Sirius Black’s limited social circle, and make them best friends forever -- or more. It would be child’s play, not to mention the quickest way to be done with the Potter kid and his pathetic wish.
It would also ensure that she would be the laughingstock of Arashmaharr for centuries to come.
Her other option was to seize the opportunity to create some honest to goodness chaos, make a name for herself, and have fun doing it.
It was an easy decision. She knew what she was going to do even before she got off that stupid magical train and immediately rushed to tell D’Hoffryn of her plans. It was no secret that Anyanka had been his favorite; Halfrek thought he would take particular delight in knowing what she had in store for those who brought about Anyanka’s fall.
Now, as she stood in Arashmaharr, however, she began to second guess herself.
In her eagerness to strike back at the Slayer et al, she had overlooked one teeny tiny detail. There was one basic rule for vengeance demons when granting wishes; don’t leave loose ends. There could be no trail that led back to Arashmaharr. If Halfrek sicced a demon on someone, she would make it look like an animal attack or something similar to the normal human eye. If she altered reality, it was done wholesale; only the person making the wish would remember what had been. If she dropped someone into another dimension, then she erased all traces of his existence in his previous world unless the wish specifically stated something different. It was standard operating procedures. Otherwise, it raised too many questions.
Halfrek didn’t want to erase the Slayer’s existence from her world, however. She wanted the ones she left behind to know their loss and suffer because of it.
While D’Hoffryn gave her a lot of latitude in the way she fulfilled wishes, he was a stickler for this one rule. He would never allow her to do it. Unless...
The Slayer happened to find herself stumbling into a portal opened by a few temporal demons who owed Halfrek a favor, thereby rendering the rule moot.
She was exploiting a loophole, of course; D’Hoffryn would immediately see that. Technically, however, she wasn’t breaking the rule, and that was what really mattered. As long as she was able to prove to D’Hoffryn that it was all worth it, he wouldn’t object to how she pulled it off.
Halfrek grinned, happy to have resolved that particular issue. Now she needed to figure out how to get the Slayer through the dimensional rift without a fuss.
It had to be subtle. The Slayer couldn’t notice anything was amiss until it was too late, and she couldn’t have time to warn her friends or let them know what happened to her. Similarly, the rift couldn’t garner any attention in the magical world, particularly from Albus Dumbledore. That meant she had to avoid making any major reality shifts that directly involved him, such as inserting the Slayer into Hogwarts as if she’d been a student for years. For although Halfrek had faith in her abilities, she did not want to make the mistake of underestimating the shrewd wizard. It was bad enough there had to be any interaction with the old, meddling fool at all. That was unavoidable, however. Sirius Black ended up in Azkaban not long after leaving Hogwarts. The connection would have to be made before then.
The Forbidden Forest, Halfrek realized. Steeped in all sorts of magic, a disturbance there would not be noticed, particularly if the Slayer arrived at night when activity there was at its peak. Admittedly, showing up on the doorstep of Hogwarts at that time of night was a little suspicious, but Halfrek could easily explain that away. In fact, she preferred everyone thinking that the Slayer was a juvenile delinquent.
Confident in her plan, Halfrek left Arashmaharr to set it in motion -- without speaking to D’Hoffryn first. She would fill him in later, when he could truly appreciate what she had done.
As the saying went, it was better to ask forgiveness than permission.
+++
Halfrek watched gleefully as Buffy Summers unknowingly walked right through the portal. As she joined the Slayer on the other side, however, her joy dimmed somewhat.
She was right in the middle of a giant acromantula nest in the Forbidden Forest, and the horrid creatures were attacking. That wouldn’t do at all.
Halfrek quickly teleported to the fringes of the forest. As she waited for the Slayer to appear, she began to stew.
She had intended to alter the Slayer’s reality the second she arrived in this world. Now that was impossible. Buffy Summers needed to remain the Slayer if she was to get out of the forest alive.
Impatiently, Halfrek tapped her foot. Just as she was about to check on the Slayer, she felt a tingle in her brain.
D’Hoffryn was summoning her. He knew.
Halfrek winced. Sometimes having an omnipotent boss was the pits. She had hoped that he would be too preoccupied with finding a replacement for Anyanka -- a task that had taken all of his time up until this very moment -- but that clearly wasn’t the case. Still, she paid no mind to the call.
Unfortunately, D’Hoffryn was not one to be ignored. The tingling quickly turned to pain, one that she knew would get exponentially worse with every passing second. And still, the Slayer was nowhere in sight.
Cursing under her breath, Halfrek weighed her options. If she completed the wish now, the Slayer probably wouldn’t make it out of the forest. Halfrek would also be in some serious trouble with D’Hoffryn, since he obviously wasn’t pleased with what she was doing. She couldn’t leave things as they were, though, so she cast a small spell, just to give the Slayer a taste of what was potentially in store for her.
Temporarily mollified -- and not daring to do more -- Halfrek hurried off to Arashmaharr.
The first thing she noticed was how quiet it was. Her colleagues kept their heads down as she entered, avoiding eye contact altogether. It was not a good sign. Still, Halfrek held her head high, confident she’d be able to talk her way out of it.
“D’Hoffryn,” she greeted her boss as she entered the main hall where he sat upon a throne.
D’Hoffryn stared at her, his face unreadable. “Halfrek, I believe you have something to tell me?”
She wavered only slightly. “I’m merely fulfilling a wish -- an incredibly boring one that I managed to transform into something worthy of our attention. After all, we’re not in the business of love and happiness. Our purpose is to ‘bring forth destruction and chaos for the amusement of the Lower Beings’,” she said, reciting their mission statement verbatim, hoping that would win her brownie points.
D’Hoffryn was not impressed. “By making the Slayer fall in love with someone, the very thing you just denounced?”
Halfrek nodded, inwardly relieved that he was giving her a chance to explain. “I promise, the reverberations of this wish will be felt in both worlds. The duty of being the Slayer will now fall fully onto the other one, who’s the very definition of a loose cannon. Then there’s the vampire. Rumor has it that the First has big plans for him and would be very appreciative if Blondie were out of the way. And I can only guess at what havoc the Slayer will wreak in the Wizarding world. As we both know, she has that tendency,” she added sourly.
Her boss studied her for a moment before replying. “Why don’t you just create a world where they are already friends or lovers and he is in Azkaban?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Halfrek retorted, perhaps a tad more vehemently than she intended. “I want to see her grovel after him, and when the time comes, I want her pain to be real and not manufactured by magic.”
“But it gives him the chance to reject her,” D’Hoffryn pointed out.
As he spoke, he snapped his fingers, opening a hazy window into the Wizarding World. In the cloud, Halfrek could see the Slayer talking with Sirius Black and his friends. From the looks on their faces, it wasn’t a friendly conversation, particularly between the Slayer and the soon to be object of her affection.
Halfrek wasn’t concerned. She waved her hand dismissively. “That’s just foreplay. Besides, the wish didn’t say he had to return the feelings. She’ll pine away for him regardless. And if he does reciprocate? Then he seals his own fate. He won’t last a year in Azkaban. The Dementors will find that shred of hope and love and suck him dry,” she smirked. “Even if her presence somehow keeps him from being imprisoned, the wish is still fulfilled and the entire course of the war will change. Imagine the possibilities.”
D’Hoffryn’s eyes brightened at this. He was still far from happy, though, and his expression quickly grew stern once again. “There’s still the matter of you breaking one of our most sacred rules--”
“Technically, I didn’t break it,” Halfrek protested, though she had enough shame to look at the floor as she spoke. “The Slayer’s appearance in another dimension was not tied to wish magic.”
“That’s not the rule I was referring to,” D’Hoffryn cut in, his tone harsh and unyielding.
Confused, Halfrek looked up, which only seemed to make D’Hoffryn angrier.
“Vengeance demons do not seek vengeance for themselves,” he boomed, his voice echoing throughout Arashmaharr.
Halfrek’s jaw dropped. “But… but, I’m not,” she sputtered.
“Aren’t you?” D’Hoffryn hissed. “Your hatred for the Slayer has clouded your judgment. Consequently, you’re trying to shoehorn your own desires into someone else’s wish, the fulfillment of which is convoluted at best. It is petty and foolish and utterly human of you.”
Halfrek opened her mouth to object, but no words came out -- because she knew that he was right.
She hadn’t realized how much anger she harboured over what had happened to Anyanka, but she couldn’t deny it, particularly when it was presented in such bald terms. She had compromised everything, just to get revenge on the Slayer and her friends.
It was too great an offense to go unpunished.
Hanging her head, Halfrek waited for D’Hoffryn’s judgment. He, however, merely sighed and leaned back into his chair, instantly shifting from an enraged demon lord disciplining his minion to a loving father reluctantly berating a truculent child.
“Still, your wish has potential, and it would be entertaining to see that particular group of humans suffer,” he murmured. “Very well then, proceed.”
By the look he gave her, it was clear he expected her to complete the wish right then and there. Not wanting to give him time to reconsider his reprieve, Halfrek waved her hand, feeling the magic grow and expand around her before it dissipated. She regretted that she couldn’t see the Slayer’s face when her world got turned upside down, but she didn’t dare voice that out loud. Instead, she tried to watch the scene play out in D’Hoffryn’s window, but he quickly closed it, perhaps as punishment. The last thing she saw was the telltale flash of wizarding spells.
Though she was curious what that was all about, she didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she turned to hurry out of D’Hoffryn’s hall, eager to put as much distance between her and Arashmaharr as possible.
As she reached the door, D’Hoffryn called out to her.
“Oh, and Halfrek? You had better hope that your wish lives up to its promise,” he warned her, the hard look back in his eye. “I’m already looking for a replacement for Anyanka. I’d hate to look for yours, too.”
All the blood drained from Halfrek’s face at this, and she gave a panicked nod before leaving.
Her directive was clear. She would see this through until the end, no matter what. Her job -- and her life -- depended on it.
+++
A/N: Yep, I made vengeance demons fallible. I’m sorry if this makes some readers unhappy. Anyanka and Halfrek were friends, though. I wanted to explore the ways in which Halfrek may have reacted to her friend’s fate and give her the opportunity to be more than just a means to an end.
Author: akat
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own BtVS or Harry Potter.
Spoilers: BtVS through Season 3. HP through Book 3. Takes place during BtVS Season 3, after ‘The Wish’.
Summary: In her eagerness to strike back at the Slayer, Halfrek had overlooked one teeny tiny detail.
Word Count: 2240
A/N: This is a sequel to Destiny’s Fool.
+++
The vengeance business was not as glamorous as it seemed. Those seeking revenge were usually small picture people, often lacking both scope and ambition. Creatively interpreting their wishes was a standard part of the job.
Some vengeance demons had a knack for it; they were the ones who became legends in Arashmaharr. Halfrek herself was known for a notably devious wish or two, but no one surpassed Anyanka. She was the master at it, a true artist, earning both admiration and envy from Halfrek. Her work with the Chase girl was inspired, easily her pièce de résistance -- only to be undone by a Vampire Slayer and her friends from the Island of Misfit Toys. Now the Patron Saint of Women Scorned was mortal; a high school student, no less. It was embarrassing and degrading.
Vengeance didn’t stop for anyone, however, and neither did Halfrek. Though she mourned the fate of her friend, she continued helping abused and neglected children get their revenge, devising horrific punishments for the adults who wronged them.
Then the Potter brat made his wish.
I just wish he had someone who believed in him and stood by him, right from the beginning, someone who would give him something to fight for and not just against.
Halfrek suddenly found herself at a crossroads. She could find someone, perhaps a Hogwarts student outside of Sirius Black’s limited social circle, and make them best friends forever -- or more. It would be child’s play, not to mention the quickest way to be done with the Potter kid and his pathetic wish.
It would also ensure that she would be the laughingstock of Arashmaharr for centuries to come.
Her other option was to seize the opportunity to create some honest to goodness chaos, make a name for herself, and have fun doing it.
It was an easy decision. She knew what she was going to do even before she got off that stupid magical train and immediately rushed to tell D’Hoffryn of her plans. It was no secret that Anyanka had been his favorite; Halfrek thought he would take particular delight in knowing what she had in store for those who brought about Anyanka’s fall.
Now, as she stood in Arashmaharr, however, she began to second guess herself.
In her eagerness to strike back at the Slayer et al, she had overlooked one teeny tiny detail. There was one basic rule for vengeance demons when granting wishes; don’t leave loose ends. There could be no trail that led back to Arashmaharr. If Halfrek sicced a demon on someone, she would make it look like an animal attack or something similar to the normal human eye. If she altered reality, it was done wholesale; only the person making the wish would remember what had been. If she dropped someone into another dimension, then she erased all traces of his existence in his previous world unless the wish specifically stated something different. It was standard operating procedures. Otherwise, it raised too many questions.
Halfrek didn’t want to erase the Slayer’s existence from her world, however. She wanted the ones she left behind to know their loss and suffer because of it.
While D’Hoffryn gave her a lot of latitude in the way she fulfilled wishes, he was a stickler for this one rule. He would never allow her to do it. Unless...
The Slayer happened to find herself stumbling into a portal opened by a few temporal demons who owed Halfrek a favor, thereby rendering the rule moot.
She was exploiting a loophole, of course; D’Hoffryn would immediately see that. Technically, however, she wasn’t breaking the rule, and that was what really mattered. As long as she was able to prove to D’Hoffryn that it was all worth it, he wouldn’t object to how she pulled it off.
Halfrek grinned, happy to have resolved that particular issue. Now she needed to figure out how to get the Slayer through the dimensional rift without a fuss.
It had to be subtle. The Slayer couldn’t notice anything was amiss until it was too late, and she couldn’t have time to warn her friends or let them know what happened to her. Similarly, the rift couldn’t garner any attention in the magical world, particularly from Albus Dumbledore. That meant she had to avoid making any major reality shifts that directly involved him, such as inserting the Slayer into Hogwarts as if she’d been a student for years. For although Halfrek had faith in her abilities, she did not want to make the mistake of underestimating the shrewd wizard. It was bad enough there had to be any interaction with the old, meddling fool at all. That was unavoidable, however. Sirius Black ended up in Azkaban not long after leaving Hogwarts. The connection would have to be made before then.
The Forbidden Forest, Halfrek realized. Steeped in all sorts of magic, a disturbance there would not be noticed, particularly if the Slayer arrived at night when activity there was at its peak. Admittedly, showing up on the doorstep of Hogwarts at that time of night was a little suspicious, but Halfrek could easily explain that away. In fact, she preferred everyone thinking that the Slayer was a juvenile delinquent.
Confident in her plan, Halfrek left Arashmaharr to set it in motion -- without speaking to D’Hoffryn first. She would fill him in later, when he could truly appreciate what she had done.
As the saying went, it was better to ask forgiveness than permission.
+++
Halfrek watched gleefully as Buffy Summers unknowingly walked right through the portal. As she joined the Slayer on the other side, however, her joy dimmed somewhat.
She was right in the middle of a giant acromantula nest in the Forbidden Forest, and the horrid creatures were attacking. That wouldn’t do at all.
Halfrek quickly teleported to the fringes of the forest. As she waited for the Slayer to appear, she began to stew.
She had intended to alter the Slayer’s reality the second she arrived in this world. Now that was impossible. Buffy Summers needed to remain the Slayer if she was to get out of the forest alive.
Impatiently, Halfrek tapped her foot. Just as she was about to check on the Slayer, she felt a tingle in her brain.
D’Hoffryn was summoning her. He knew.
Halfrek winced. Sometimes having an omnipotent boss was the pits. She had hoped that he would be too preoccupied with finding a replacement for Anyanka -- a task that had taken all of his time up until this very moment -- but that clearly wasn’t the case. Still, she paid no mind to the call.
Unfortunately, D’Hoffryn was not one to be ignored. The tingling quickly turned to pain, one that she knew would get exponentially worse with every passing second. And still, the Slayer was nowhere in sight.
Cursing under her breath, Halfrek weighed her options. If she completed the wish now, the Slayer probably wouldn’t make it out of the forest. Halfrek would also be in some serious trouble with D’Hoffryn, since he obviously wasn’t pleased with what she was doing. She couldn’t leave things as they were, though, so she cast a small spell, just to give the Slayer a taste of what was potentially in store for her.
Temporarily mollified -- and not daring to do more -- Halfrek hurried off to Arashmaharr.
The first thing she noticed was how quiet it was. Her colleagues kept their heads down as she entered, avoiding eye contact altogether. It was not a good sign. Still, Halfrek held her head high, confident she’d be able to talk her way out of it.
“D’Hoffryn,” she greeted her boss as she entered the main hall where he sat upon a throne.
D’Hoffryn stared at her, his face unreadable. “Halfrek, I believe you have something to tell me?”
She wavered only slightly. “I’m merely fulfilling a wish -- an incredibly boring one that I managed to transform into something worthy of our attention. After all, we’re not in the business of love and happiness. Our purpose is to ‘bring forth destruction and chaos for the amusement of the Lower Beings’,” she said, reciting their mission statement verbatim, hoping that would win her brownie points.
D’Hoffryn was not impressed. “By making the Slayer fall in love with someone, the very thing you just denounced?”
Halfrek nodded, inwardly relieved that he was giving her a chance to explain. “I promise, the reverberations of this wish will be felt in both worlds. The duty of being the Slayer will now fall fully onto the other one, who’s the very definition of a loose cannon. Then there’s the vampire. Rumor has it that the First has big plans for him and would be very appreciative if Blondie were out of the way. And I can only guess at what havoc the Slayer will wreak in the Wizarding world. As we both know, she has that tendency,” she added sourly.
Her boss studied her for a moment before replying. “Why don’t you just create a world where they are already friends or lovers and he is in Azkaban?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Halfrek retorted, perhaps a tad more vehemently than she intended. “I want to see her grovel after him, and when the time comes, I want her pain to be real and not manufactured by magic.”
“But it gives him the chance to reject her,” D’Hoffryn pointed out.
As he spoke, he snapped his fingers, opening a hazy window into the Wizarding World. In the cloud, Halfrek could see the Slayer talking with Sirius Black and his friends. From the looks on their faces, it wasn’t a friendly conversation, particularly between the Slayer and the soon to be object of her affection.
Halfrek wasn’t concerned. She waved her hand dismissively. “That’s just foreplay. Besides, the wish didn’t say he had to return the feelings. She’ll pine away for him regardless. And if he does reciprocate? Then he seals his own fate. He won’t last a year in Azkaban. The Dementors will find that shred of hope and love and suck him dry,” she smirked. “Even if her presence somehow keeps him from being imprisoned, the wish is still fulfilled and the entire course of the war will change. Imagine the possibilities.”
D’Hoffryn’s eyes brightened at this. He was still far from happy, though, and his expression quickly grew stern once again. “There’s still the matter of you breaking one of our most sacred rules--”
“Technically, I didn’t break it,” Halfrek protested, though she had enough shame to look at the floor as she spoke. “The Slayer’s appearance in another dimension was not tied to wish magic.”
“That’s not the rule I was referring to,” D’Hoffryn cut in, his tone harsh and unyielding.
Confused, Halfrek looked up, which only seemed to make D’Hoffryn angrier.
“Vengeance demons do not seek vengeance for themselves,” he boomed, his voice echoing throughout Arashmaharr.
Halfrek’s jaw dropped. “But… but, I’m not,” she sputtered.
“Aren’t you?” D’Hoffryn hissed. “Your hatred for the Slayer has clouded your judgment. Consequently, you’re trying to shoehorn your own desires into someone else’s wish, the fulfillment of which is convoluted at best. It is petty and foolish and utterly human of you.”
Halfrek opened her mouth to object, but no words came out -- because she knew that he was right.
She hadn’t realized how much anger she harboured over what had happened to Anyanka, but she couldn’t deny it, particularly when it was presented in such bald terms. She had compromised everything, just to get revenge on the Slayer and her friends.
It was too great an offense to go unpunished.
Hanging her head, Halfrek waited for D’Hoffryn’s judgment. He, however, merely sighed and leaned back into his chair, instantly shifting from an enraged demon lord disciplining his minion to a loving father reluctantly berating a truculent child.
“Still, your wish has potential, and it would be entertaining to see that particular group of humans suffer,” he murmured. “Very well then, proceed.”
By the look he gave her, it was clear he expected her to complete the wish right then and there. Not wanting to give him time to reconsider his reprieve, Halfrek waved her hand, feeling the magic grow and expand around her before it dissipated. She regretted that she couldn’t see the Slayer’s face when her world got turned upside down, but she didn’t dare voice that out loud. Instead, she tried to watch the scene play out in D’Hoffryn’s window, but he quickly closed it, perhaps as punishment. The last thing she saw was the telltale flash of wizarding spells.
Though she was curious what that was all about, she didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she turned to hurry out of D’Hoffryn’s hall, eager to put as much distance between her and Arashmaharr as possible.
As she reached the door, D’Hoffryn called out to her.
“Oh, and Halfrek? You had better hope that your wish lives up to its promise,” he warned her, the hard look back in his eye. “I’m already looking for a replacement for Anyanka. I’d hate to look for yours, too.”
All the blood drained from Halfrek’s face at this, and she gave a panicked nod before leaving.
Her directive was clear. She would see this through until the end, no matter what. Her job -- and her life -- depended on it.
+++
A/N: Yep, I made vengeance demons fallible. I’m sorry if this makes some readers unhappy. Anyanka and Halfrek were friends, though. I wanted to explore the ways in which Halfrek may have reacted to her friend’s fate and give her the opportunity to be more than just a means to an end.