"I know him plenty," Rias spat. "You haven't finalized the arrangement yet; there's still time to stop this. Please!"
"Enough," Venelana said. "You're not a child anymore, Rias. You know that our power and privilege come with certain obligations. Now I truly hope that you and your future husband manage to come to some sort of accord, but if worse comes to worse, you won't have to spend every day and night with him."
"May I go?" Rias asked, furious at them both.
"You may," her father sighed.
Wings springing from her back, she didn't bother touching a single step as she rushed to her room, hot tears stinging her eyes.
"They didn't budge?" Akeno asked the second she saw her.
"No," Rias growled. "They're insisting that I marry that pig!"
"I'm so sorry, Rias," Akeno sighed, hugging her tightly.
"It's apparently too much to ask that I get to fall in love," Rias said despondently. "I'm going to be stuck married to a man who will treat me like a broodmare when he isn't fucking someone else. I should free you before it happens."
"No!" Akeno exclaimed.
"Akeno, you're mine, and if I marry him, we'll both become his," Rias said.
"I am yours," Akeno said, resting her forehead against Rias'. "For better or worse, I'm not leaving your side."
"It's a shame I can't marry you," Rias said. "You'd bring a hell of a lot more to the table. Loyalty, good company…"
"Probably as much dick," Akeno giggled, making her laugh as well. "Your brother can't help you?"
"Not with this," Rias sighed, walking over and flopping on her bed. "He's one of the Satans, and he can't be seen interfering in family disputes like this. He has to remain above it all, impartial."
"If this was Sona, do you really think that Lady Serafall would even hesitate to intervene?" Akeno scoffed.
"Serafall would start a civil war if some gave Sona a papercut, but Sirzechs isn't like that, and I wouldn't want him to be," Rias said. "As much as I hate Riser, I wouldn't want this to make trouble for my brother. No, if I want a way out of this, I'm going to have to take care of it myself."
"Any ideas?" Akeno asked.
"My mother loves rating games," Rias said. "If I could bet my freedom on the outcome of one of them, she might take that bet, but only if it was one that I was participating in…"
"And you only have me," Akeno sighed.
"I have at least two years," Rias said. "If I can build up a proper peerage before then and find some match that my mother would be willing to bet against me on, then that could work. Father would go along with her if she decided to call things off."
"You could also just lose your virginity," Akeno suggested.
"No devil would risk making enemies of the Phenex clan," Rias said, shaking her head, "and the idea of using some random human man, likely dooming him in the process, just doesn't sit well with me, not while I have other options at least."
"If you made him part of your peerage, he'd become a servant of the house of Gremory," Akeno said. "Pissed as they'd be, your parents would be obliged to protect him."
"If I come across a man impressive enough to recruit, then that will be an option," Rias admitted, "but I'm not wasting an evil piece on someone who wouldn't be of further use to me."
"Then we need to focus on just recruiting you a full peerage," Akeno said. When Rias jerked violently, she asked, "Rias?"
"I, ah!" Rias cried out, wrapping her arms around her middle. "I feel like I'm being pulled...I'm being summoned!"
"By who?" Akeno asked in alarm. "No devil could possibly…"
"I'm being summoned to Earth," Rias hissed. "Some magician managed it somehow."
"If it's a guy, maybe he could solve your problem," Akeno said, relaxing once she realized that her master wasn't in danger. "Good luck!"
Before Rias could reply, she disappeared in a flash of light.
"Member of the House of Gremory, I summon thee," Harry repeated again, beginning to wonder if this was even working.
He had held out for a full day, trying as hard as he could to find a solution other than the one that Luna had given him. The best plan he had so far was Moody's idea of flying around the dragon and taking what he needed to get his hands on. All he needed to do for that was learn the summoning charm, something that Hermione had helped him with, and then fly like his life depended on it, because it would.
He knew that he was a good flyer, one of the best in the school, in fact, but he just didn't know if he was good enough for this, and there were so many things that could go wrong with the plan. With two days left before the task and with him unable to sleep, he started reading through Luna's book, trying not to get too distracted by the illustrations. Eventually, he happened upon the entry for the devil clan Gremory, which seemed to be one of the friendliest of them, and decided to give it a shot. Closing the curtains around his bed and taking care to ensure that no sound would escape them, he followed the instructions in the book and began his summoning.