205Lilia had to smirk when he heard the sounds in the other room. In retrospect, he should have just used that mild aphrodisiac sooner. The two had been dancing around each other for months now since the potion wore off, and it was pretty obvious that they would end up together.
It had started off innocently enough...Azalea had suggested clubbing, to introduce the boys to mundane London. Lilia had been all for it, as it had sounded exactly like his scene. She was even bringing Ginny and Luna, as Hermione was busy with work and had no interest in the singles scene.
The night had gone well enough...a few charms on some ribbons Azalea had wrapped around Malleus' horns meant no one noticed them in the least. He was still stared at, mostly because of how inhumanly beautiful he was, but that was better than having to explain his horns.
She had also removed the cursed choker around Sebek's neck, because the places they were going to would be loud enough that he would need his normal volume. Besides, he had been behaving himself rather well by this point.
Malleus was utterly fascinated, both by the club and by his 'date'. Luna was having entirely too much fun giving him random drinks to try.
Sebek was three sheets to the wind and didn't even noticed Ginny was hitting on him. Lilia was almost in hysterics.
Azalea wasn't drunk, but the mild aphrodisiac Ginny had slipped into her drink had started to kick in after about an hour and she was snuggling up to Silver, who was doing his best to stay somewhat sober.
He failed, somewhat miserably...which had lead to this.
Ginny had managed to get a cab back to the Black residence for the most part...though she made no promises about Sebek's chastity.
The boy was too high strung. A night of fun with a pretty girl would do him some good.
Luna was spending the night with Malleus, cheerfully asking him questions about the faeries of his court and bemusing him with stories of "Crumplehorned Snorkacks", if he heard her right.
He went to sleep that night with a satisfied smile. He noticed Sebek was a lot calmer when Ginny returned with him the next morning.
He should have done this sooner. Though he found the blush of Silver, Sebek and Azalea adorable as hell the next morning. Ginny just looked like the cat who had gotten the cream and was incredibly smug.
"Did you kids have fun?" said Lilia.
Azalea's blush went to the tips of her ears, while Silver had trouble looking his father in the eye.
Lilia did his best not to cackle.
"So which positions did you use?" grinned Ginny.
Azalea's blush got worse.
"We didn't get past second base, thank you very much."
Ginny straight up cackled. Lilia wasn't much better. Malleus...was just confused by the terminology.
"What exactly is 'second base'?" he asked baffled.
Azalea was mortified, and Lilia was wheezing.
She was not explaining that sort of thing over breakfast. Then it hit her.
She pulled out her phone (to the fascination of Ginny) before typing something and switching the language settings. She handed him the phone.
"Read. I'm not explaining it over breakfast," she said flatly. Malleus was confused, before that turned into amusement.
"So what's on the schedule today?" asked Ginny.
"I promised to take Teddy out for the day, since we're going back tomorrow," said Azalea.
Ginny smiled fondly at that. Azalea might not have given birth to Teddy, but she treated him like a son regardless. She took her godmother duties very seriously indeed.
Malleus looked incredibly eager after hearing the story from Azalea about an ancient curse she had read about while in school. He had asked about seeing any gargoyles she knew about aside from the ones in Hogwarts, which were still under repair.
Azalea did in fact, know of some gargoyle statues that might attract his interest, and he could examine them in very thorough detail for as long as he liked as it was an abandoned castle.
Needless to say, the entire group headed to the castle, and Malleus was overjoyed upon seeing the stone statues.
"I'm not sure they qualify as gargoyles...they look more like grotesques," said Malleus.
"Well according to the story, these come to life at night," explained Azalea. "They were not permanent fixtures, but a species of magical gargoyles that were primarily nocturnal in nature, and would turn to stone again when daylight came."
Malleus visibly perked up.
"So what happened to them?" asked Lilia.
"A mage cursed them. Apparently the humans who lived here were betrayed, and the mage believed it was their fault the princess was lost, so he placed a curse on them. It turns out she was fine, but the leader of the clan asked to have the curse placed on him as well, so that he could be with them when they woke up."
Azalea looked at the statue on the highest point of the tower they were on.
"According to the book, his name was Goliath, and that's his statue."
"Did it mention how to break the curse?" asked Malleus.
"The curse would only be broken when the castle rises above the clouds...and when sunset hits, I'd assume," said Azalea.
She didn't need to look at Malleus to see where this was going. As predicted, he wanted to stay until nightfall, and they had the time. Besides, it let them explore the castle properly. He perked up big time when they found what looked like a hatchery.
As the sun began to set, they all waited inside the castle boundary.
Azalea had wisely placed a few wards to keep any nosy watchers from noticing what Malleus was about to do. She had expected as much when she told him that story.
It wasn't like she expected anything to happen, though she had noticed Malleus had cleaned off each stone gargoyle with the utmost care...especially Goliath.
As the sun began to go down, Malleus pulled out his spell pen. Azalea could feel the magic he was giving off, and it wasn't something the average mage could pull off. Forget lifting the castle, most wizards would be lucky if they could lift a single gargoyle without damaging it.
Hearing the ancient stone began to groan in protest, Azalea pulled out her phone and began to record. There was no way anyone would believe he did this otherwise.
She watched in disbelief as Malleus managed to lift the entire castle, stone gargoyles and all, well above the cloud line. She could only hope that there weren't any planes flying nearby.
The sun began to set, and thick, dark clouds began to swirl overhead. Lightning crackled above the clouds, and it wasn't his doing for once. It was a good thing they had brooms with them, just in case.
It was beyond weird to see the clouds while in a castle quite literally floating in the air with nothing to support it.
The moment the sun had fully set and darkness fell, silence descended, save for the unexpected wind that had picked up. Lightning crashed around them, and rain began to fall.
Then...it happened.
Cracks began to form along the gargoyle they were standing next to, which was the 'leader' from what Azalea had read.
Goliath let out a loud roar as the spell shattered, and the stone that had encased him broke apart into pieces. His claws left marks on the stone he had been resting on all this time.
Below, they could hear the other gargoyles waking up, as if they had just been sleeping.
Malleus was incredibly pleased to see the stone gargoyles come to life.
He carefully placed the castle back on the ground, as it had served it's purpose.
"You have our thanks, for freeing us," said Goliath. He looked very relieved to see his family in the flesh again.
Malleus was very starstruck, because he never expected the legend to be true and that he would be in the presence of living gargoyles.
"No thanks necessary," said Lilia, as it would take a minute for Malleus to reboot. "If anything, we were rather curious if the story Azalea told us was true."
"Still, we are in your debt for breaking our curse," said Goliath.
Azalea, being rather quick witted, made a pointed show of looking around at the castle. It was in quite the state of disrepair.
"What do you plan to do now? I highly doubt you'd want to guard this castle, since it's fallen into such disrepair. And it's not like you can approach the locals to help you get the needed supplies to do so."
Goliath had a tired look on his face.
"This castle is our home," said Goliath.
"It was your home," she corrected, gently. "Do you really think you or your friends would thrive in a castle that's quite literally falling apart? It definitely wouldn't have taken to the stunt Malleus pulled to break the curse well."
Goliath had a tired, worn look.
By this point Malleus had rebooted from how happy he was.
"You could always come to Briar Valley. You and your clan would be welcome with open arms, and no one would bat an eye at your appearance," said Malleus.
"Briar Valley?" said the oldest looking gargoyle. He had a scar on one eye and was clearly an older warrior. "I might have heard something about that place."
Lilia blinked at the voice, then grinned.
The odd gargoyle dog creature was sniffing at Silver with interest. It let out an odd, happy growl which had Silver absently scratching the frills on it's head. In no time at all, the creature had a new best friend.
Azalea suddenly looked outside the castle gates, and made a face.
"We might want to relocate this discussion elsewhere. Someone just crossed the alert ward I set, and I'm betting it's the aurors sent to investigate why so much magic was being cast."
Goliath and the others tensed.
Malleus however was unconcerned.
"I'm sure you're hungry after sleeping so long, and this weather can't be good for your bodies. Perhaps it would be better to relocate temporarily for the time being until you regain your bearings?" he suggested.
Goliath was agreeable to the idea, as they had no idea how much things had changed since they were put into a forced sleep.
Coincidentally the aurors were not amused with the mess they now had to clean up.
In Grimmauld Place...
Malleus was over the moon, having living gargoyles to talk to. Goliath was unsure how to handle a literal fan boy, but the younger ones were very agreeable to the idea and more than happy to tell Malleus whatever he wanted to know about their kind.
The elder gargoyle was talking to Lilia, and the two had become fast friends. Silver was currently spoiling the gargoyle dog with food, and it was happily being spoiled.
Azalea was just amused at the chaos she had left in her wake.
"So you're saying that we could live freely in this valley, without fear of being destroyed during the day?" said Goliath.
Malleus looked openly affronted at the idea of destroying such magnificent creatures.
"Briar Valley is ruled by nocturnal fae, most of whom would understand the fact you're inactive during the day. If anything, having such reputable guardians would make my grandmother very pleased indeed. We're always looking for new additions to the guard."
"How would your king react to our presence?" asked the elder.
"Perhaps we forgot to mention this," said Lilia dryly. "Malleus is the heir apparent and the next king of Briar Valley. The current monarch is his grandmother."
Goliath perked up at that information.
"Malleus also happens to be the head of the Gargoyle Studies Club," said Azalea amused. "You have no idea how excited he was when I mentioned your story to him."
Azalea was rather amused and unsurprised that Goliath's small clan agreed to relocate to Briar Valley. Malleus was openly thrilled at the prospect, because it meant he could observe them up close and have long detailed chats with them.
It also made her wonder if there were other gargoyles like Goliath and his group, because there was no way they'd sustained their species this long with such a small number. There had to be others like them somewhere.