At some point over the two hours after lunch, Harry and the girls had altered their formation. Now, instead of Koneko leading them both (as had been the case when she pulled them to the restaurant) it was Harry in the middle. This allowed both girls to happily help themselves to his hands at the same time, holding one each and periodically dragging him to show him something they liked in the city.
For Rias, it was usually tourist attractions, often buildings that were especially grand or caught the light beautifully.
For Koneko, it was usually dessert carts. Seriously, her lunch hadn't filled her up. Not even with the SPECIAL dessert she'd been given. She'd eaten her way through about a week's worth of desserts while they'd meandered along the city streets, and frankly, Harry wasn't sure where she was putting all of it, Rook metabolism or not.
Koneko swallowed the last few bites of a waffle cone, only to suddenly stop and look to the side toward Harry. "Your hand is hot."
Harry had stopped too.
"It is…" Harry said.
Specifically, it was the ring on his fourth finger: his wedding ring.
It might've looked like an ordinary band of metal, not really worth commemorating anything, let alone a marriage… But that was on purpose. It was Harry's decision to make it unassuming. That way, few would expect the powerful magics that had been worked on such a small thing.
Among its many enchantments was a method to send a beacon. It wasn't complicated enough to transmit a message, but its purpose was emergencies. Fleur was saying: I need you.
"Hold on tightly," Harry said.
Koneko squeezed his hand, while Rias did the same, although the Gremory heir asked: "What are you planning to do—"
Harry apparated with both of them, targeting his wife's exact coordinates, another perk he'd added to their rings.
Fleur was still in Gremory Manor. There were defenses against teleportation activated over the mansion, but just like Harry's wards hadn't fended off Grayfia and Riser's arrival via devil magic, his magic was able to bring him straight into the mansion.
Later, he would raise some wards to address that defensive liability. Right now, he was completely focused on his wife.
She was sitting in the lounge beside Akeno and Tonks. Thankfully, everyone was present and unharmed. That just made Harry wonder what the problem could be.
Then, his eyes fell on the mirror that was in Fleur's hands.
"Daphne?" he asked.
"In grave danger," Fleur said. "According to 'er."
Fleur held up the mirror for Harry to see. There were only snatches of movement on the other side, including a ladylike voice cursing in utterly unladylike ways.
"Threat?" Harry asked.
"Unclear," Fleur cheerfully. "She asked for you to be zere… I believer 'er words were 'Fucking yesterday.'"
"Is Harry there?" This came from the voice in the mirror. "Tell him—"
There was a loud noise, followed by the mirror shattering in Fleur's hand. As the glass rained down, everyone looked at the broken mirror.
"Well, it seems it's time to cut this Underworld visit short," Harry said.
Rias nodded sadly. "I'll prepare the teleportation circle."
"I think it's in our interest to go a bit faster," Harry said.
He took a small keychain out of his pocket. Hanging on the end was a bauble of the Gremory House Crest. He'd bought it in a souvenir store to commemorate this trip, much to Rias's amusement.
At the time, she told him the family had similar things that were far nicer in their treasure vault, which was apparently the size of several Tokyo Domes. Harry was glad he bought it now. It gave him a convenient object to work his magic on.
"Gather round, everyone," Harry said. "We're going to take a trip. Portus."
He tapped the keychain with the Elder Wand. All the girls came closer, squeezing in snugly so that everyone could get a little bit of contact with the item.
"What is this supposed to do?" Rias asked.
"You'll see," Harry said.
The timer he had worked into the spell reached the end of its countdown. Immediately, the fresh Portkey carried all of them away, crossing the threshold of the Underworld and bringing them to Britain. Specifically, they arrived beside the property line of a mansion surrounded by hedges.
It was only a little bit smaller than the Gremory manor, although Rias had mentioned in passing that the Gremorys owned at least one castle in addition to the mansion where Millicas's birthday was held.
Harry lifted his wand. Here, it was night time, with clouds swirling in the sky and rain pelting down. He protected them from the elements with one spell and opened the golden front gate with another one.
"Whatever is waiting in there, I doubt it would be too much of a threat to us… But all the same, let's not drop our guard," he said.
In their posse was the Master of Death, two High Class Devils, a Rook, another Queen, and a Pawn. It would take exceptional circumstances for them to truly be in danger.
Harry was more concerned about arriving too late, so he entered and strided up the path to the mansion, thinking inside his head that it had been a long time since he visited properly.
The others followed him. They looked around, though none of them saw any threat. That could be a good or a bad thing.
When they got to the front entrance, it was wrecked, completely knocked off its hinges. Harry spotted a flash of movement. The next second, something flew at him.
He held up his hand, warning the girls not to retaliate (this wasn't an attack) before losing his vision the next second as his face was buried in a large set of breasts. "You came!"
The woman who'd jumped off of her front stoop at him was shorter than he was, so much so that she could wrap her legs around his waist and stay hoisted off of the ground. This position evoked memories inside Harry's head… And apparently Daphne's as well. She quickly began extricating herself from him, sliding down and getting back on her feet, taking a big step back to distance herself. She made sure to do it onto one of the steps to her house, so that she wasn't looking up at Harry too much.
Daphne was no Koneko or Ravel, though she shared some characteristics with the latter. Daphne was about five inches taller than Koneko, which still left her remarkably short. She had blond hair that was very slightly lighter than Ravel's hair, and they both shared blue eyes. Really, Daphne could almost pass for a member of the Phenex Family, an assessment Harry felt educated enough to make after encountering three of them.
The largest difference (literally) between Daphne and the two short devils, was her chest. Daphne was built almost as curvy as Fleur. She was the pride of pureblood circles, who praised her as the most beautiful witch since Morgan Le Fay. Of course, there was some discrimination baked into that statement: they discounted "half breeds" like Fleur and awarded extra points for Daphne's aristocratic features, compared to the punk beauty of Tonks or the more lowkey prettiness of witches like Susan Bones and the Patil twins. Still, no one with any love for women would tell you that Daphne's looks weren't striking.
She put a fist to her lips, clearing her throat. She was blushing while pretending that she wasn't.
"Your speedy arrival is appreciated," Daphne said. "Though, as it seems, it wasn't entirely necessary. My predicament passed on its own."
"And what predicament would that be?" Harry asked. "Did you miss the sight of my face?"
"No, I— No!" Daphne was so aggrieved, she felt the need to disagree twice. "My life was in danger, you berk!"
"In danger from what?" Harry asked. In spite of his teasing, he was asking seriously.
"People with wings! Men and women!" Daphne exclaimed. She started gesticulating with her hands, which showed how panicked she was about this, because such behavior wasn't ladylike. "There was a whole group of them flying above the manor, throwing some kind of dangerous light! I've never seen magic like it! They suddenly disappeared, but I swear that they're real! I'm not making this up!"
"We believe you," Harry said, fighting down the smile that threatened to form, because it really wouldn't be appropriate to smirk at Daphne while she was distraught.
"They— Wait, you do?" Daphne said. "I don't have to say more to convince you? Or produce evidence? Or, or—"
Harry cocked his head. At the same time, he brought out his bat wings. Behind him, all of the girls did the same thing, causing Daphne to take a defensive step back.
"Oh Merlin," she said, putting her hand over her heart.
"Did the wings look like this?" Tonks asked. "Or were they more like this?"
Her wings changed into the feathery kind belonging to fallen angels. Daphne's immediate flinch told them what they needed to know.
"You're the same as them?" Daphne asked. "Are you even the people I know? And Harry, who are these women?"
"We're his new acquaintances," Rias said. "Nice to meet you. Daphne, was it? It sounds like you're having a fallen angel problem. I assure you, we're not like them. We're devils."
"D-Devils?" Daphne asked.
"Yes!" Rias said. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Ten minutes later, the group had taken up residence in Daphne's sitting room. It was normally a very nice room that reeked of rich extravagance. The atmosphere was just slightly disrupted by the gaping hole in the wall that had been left by the fallen angels' assault.
"You aren't going to take my soul?" Daphne asked suspiciously.
"We don't do that!" Rias said, sounding a bit frustrated because Daphne had asked the same thing before. "It's far too messy, and completely illegal. If you take someone's soul, how are you ever going to get repeat customers?"
"Okay." Daphne took a deep breath. She crossed her legs, put her hands in her lap, and asserted the regal aura she usually bore. "Yes, let's say I'm placing a request. Specifically, I'd like his help."
She pointed at Harry.
"Why Harry in particular?" Rias said. "Is it just the past connection? I assure you, Akeno and I are more than capable of handling rogue angels."
"I don't know you," Daphne said. "Perhaps your abilities are very impressive. However, I've SEEN his."
Harry smiled modestly.
Rias accepted this, most likely because she had her own reasoning.
"Harry would be the best choice," she decided. "His magic doesn't immediately give away his identity as a devil. You said there were many fallen angels here? If it turns into too large of an incident, it's possible that this could disturb the peace between the races. I don't think it's a great risk. All the same, a bit of deniability would be for the best.
"Make it seem like it was all the work of wizards," Harry summarized. "I could do that."
"How do we fight them if they ran away?" Tonks said.
"They probably sensed the power of devils," Rias said. "It seems like they're trying to avoid a direct confrontation."
"Then how do we get them to come out?" Tonks asked.
"Reincarnated Devils aren't as easy to smell," Akeno said, wearing her natural smirk. "If we leave Harry behind, it's likely that they'll come back, thinking we've all left."
It was a sound strategy, so when Daphne nodded, none of them thought anything of it.
"Yes, I think that would be for the best," Daphne said. "The three of you… Should really leave."
Something about her tone of voice made everyone look at her. Daphne's face was imperious, like a queen on her throne… Which was often how she carried herself, even back in school. It could have just been a sign that she was getting back to her usual self after her earlier scare.
All the same, a weird feeling swept the room.
"You know, it's strange that fallen angels would target you in the first place," Rias said. "They wouldn't usually stand anything to gain from it. Do you possess something they might've been interested in?"
"I'm very rich," Daphne said dismissively. "Maybe they desired my wealth, or my beauty. They wouldn't be the first. Regardless, I think it's time for you to leave."
It had been less than ten minutes since everyone sat down, so this insistence was truly strange.
"If you are zat desperate to get 'Arry alone and 'catch up' we could zimply leave ze room," Fleur said.
"It's not ABOUT that," Daphne said. "It's those ones." She pointed at Rias, Akeno, and Koneko. "It doesn't like them. They shouldn't be here."
"Daphne… WHAT doesn't like them?" Harry asked.
"What do you mean, what?" Daphne said, as if Harry's question itself was baffling. "I'm talking about the crown."
There was no dramatic flash, no noise, no explosion, nothing like that. In an instant a shape appeared on Daphne's head, resting like it had always been there. The band of jewels and fancy plates was built around a central band in the shape of a nail.
Hisses could be heard around the room as all the devils recoiled. Harry felt a light stinging, but much less than the girls, who seemed to have been afflicted with truly killer headaches.
"Yes, yes, I'm making them leave," Daphne said. "They won't be here much longer."
She uncrossed her legs, recrossing them in the other direction, perched on her recliner in a way that made it feel like a throne.
"Harry can stay," Daphne said. "The rest of you, I believe, were just leaving."
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