And Luna Lovegood, nine years old and utterly unafraid, smiled.
Because the demon had come.
---
Luna pov:
The creature did not move like a man.
He stood within the circle, tall and still, as if time ticked differently for him. His hair was darker than a moonless forest, smooth like raven feathers soaked in ink. And his eyes...oh, his eyes were glowing rubies, not like the gems in Mummy's old brooches, but the kind that stared out from ancient stories told in whispers, the kind that watched you even after you blinked.
Luna tilted her head and stared at him with open curiosity.
"You're not quite what I expected," she said, voice light as fog. "But then, nothing real ever is."
The man gave a soft, velvety laugh. It wasn't loud. It curled around her like warm smoke and made the air in the room buzz gently.
"You are not what I expected either," he said, his voice deep and still as the bottom of the sea. "A child. Barefoot. And yet... you spoke the Old Tongue with ease. How?"
Luna blinked slowly. "I think the Nargles helped me. Or maybe I just remembered it from before I was born."
He smiled, showing teeth that were too white, too perfect. "How curious. And charming."
The circle's light had dimmed now, but it hadn't broken. Luna's books had said demons needed containment, but the demon didn't seem particularly interested in hurting her. In fact, he looked quite relaxed as if he'd just woken from a long nap and wasn't ready to move again yet.
She stepped closer, her hands tucked behind her back.
"Do you have a name?" she asked. "I'd like to call you something nicer than 'The Creature.' That sounds a bit rude."
He dipped his head in an elegant bow. "I am Leviathan. Duke of the Depths. Serpent of Sloth. Keeper of the Abyssal Thrones. And..." His eyes sparkled with something like amusement. "...Father of Dragons."
Luna's eyes lit up like stars. "Dragons? Oh, I love dragons. Mummy said they're the purest fire given wings."
"She was not wrong," Leviathan replied, smiling again. "They are my children. Born from my body, but my true form."
Luna sat down cross-legged just outside the chalk circle, as if this were a bedtime story. "Tell me. I like stories."
The demon seemed... pleased. A strange thing to see on such a terrible and beautiful face.
"In the beginning," he began, "when the world still remembered its bones, I carved my body into the shape of titans. My second form is that of a beast so large it sleeps beneath oceans and mountains. Scales like black iron, wings so vast they block out the sun. A serpent with breath that melts worlds."
"That sounds... lonely," Luna said, dreamily.
Leviathan paused.
"It was," he admitted softly. "So I made the dragons in my image. But they forgot me, as all children do when they become proud."
Luna nodded sagely. "Daddy forgets things too. He forgets to eat. And he forgot how to laugh after Mummy went away."
The demon looked at her for a long time. "Your soul is old, little witch."
"I suppose it must be," she said, plucking a strand of hair from her sleeve. "Otherwise I wouldn't be able to hear stars crying."
Silence stretched between them, not uncomfortable, but deep like a lake in winter.
"Do you want to leave the circle?" she asked.
Leviathan tilted his head. "Do you want me to?"
Luna considered this. She knew most people would say no. Most people would scream, or run, or banish him.
But she was not most people.
"You don't feel like a bad thing," she said. "You feel... tired. Like me."
His eyes shimmered. "I am the embodiment of Sloth. I move slowly. I wait centuries to speak. But you woke me, Luna Lovegood. No one has summoned a demon in over four hundred years. Wizards became frightened of what they could not control."
"I'm not frightened," she said, standing up. "But I'm not trying to control you either."
Leviathan stepped forward, testing the edge of the circle with his fingertips. He pressed gently and then pulled back.
"The seal you made is precise," he said. "Your mother was clever. You are... cleverer still."
Luna blushed, then looked away. "She used to say that knowledge was a form of kindness. To learn something is to take care of it."
"She was wise," Leviathan said. "Would you like a gift, little summoner?"
She blinked. "Is it a cursed gift or a nice one?"
"That depends on how you use it," he replied, amused.
Luna pondered this deeply, staring up at her floating lanterns. "Alright then. I'd like a gift."
The demon raised his hand, and a glimmering scale appeared black, smooth, and shimmering faintly red at the edges. It pulsed with heat, but didn't burn.
"This," he said, "is a dragon's scale from my second form but shrunken to a more fitting size. If you keep it close like as a necklace for an example, it will protect you from fire, from lies, and from those who seek to steal your thoughts."
She took it gently, holding it like a sleeping baby Bowtruckle.
"Thank you," she whispered.
A faint tremor ran through the house then. Not dangerous just a reminder of something old, something shifting.
From down the hall, her father's voice rose, sharp and frustrated.
"Luna! What are you doing in there?! You've been locked up all day!"
Luna flinched.
"I think I must go," she told Leviathan. "He gets cross when I'm too quiet. He says I'm becoming like her."
"I could make him forget," Leviathan offered, eyes glowing gently.
Luna shook her head. "No. If he forgets me too, then I'll be all alone."
The demon nodded once. "You may summon me again. I will come, for you."
She smiled.
"I'd like that," she said. "Maybe next time, you can tell me how dragons dream."
The circle flared once more, light blooming like moonlight on dark water.
And in a blink, he was gone.
Luna stood alone in her room, the dragon scale warm in her hand.
She turned toward the door, her voice calm.
"I'm coming, Daddy," she called, softly.
But as she walked out of the room, she smiled to herself just a little. Because now she had a secret. A warm, wonderful, terrible secret.
And she was never quite alone again.