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.
“…I summon thee,” Harry said again.
Just as he was about to write the whole thing off as idiotic, red light began to form inside the circle of salt that he had created, taking the form of the Gremory sigil.
A moment later, there was a flash of red light so blinding that he had to close his eyes, and when he opened them again, his mouth opened with them.
The girl inside the circle looked no older than him and was even more beautiful than the illustrations he had seen in the book.
With crimson hair, bright blue eyes, and flawless pale skin, she was the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen.
That was just her face, too.
Her body was curvy in a way that even Angelina’s wasn’t, and her figure reminded him a little of the first devil whose painting he had seen.
“Wow, you’re bad at this,” she said as she looked around.
“Huh?” Harry asked.
“The circle of salt thing is a myth,” the devil scoffed, “and even if it wasn’t, putting it on a bed like this would be a bad idea.
Can you guess why?”
When he didn’t say anything, she stomped her foot down on the bed, sending the salt flying in every direction and making him feel stupid.
“Oh shit!” Harry exclaimed, reaching for his wand.
“Don’t,” Rias said harshly, her hand suddenly enveloped in bright red light.
“I don’t intend to hurt you, but that will change if you threaten me.
Now, I am Rias Gremory, magician.
Why have you summoned me?”
“I…please sit down first,” Harry said, relaxing a little when she did so.
“I’m doomed.”
“How so?” Rias asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“I was entered into this lethal tournament against my will,” Harry said.
“In two days, I’m going to have to face a dragon that I need to get past to steal something.
I have no real way of fighting the damn thing, and the best plan I’ve come up with so far is to fly around it.”
“You intend to outfly a dragon?” Rias asked.
“I didn’t say it was a good plan,” Harry said dryly.
“Hmm, and you clearly can’t just forfeit, or you would have already,” Rias said.
“I’d lose my magic, apparently,” Harry said.
“I don’t even want to be part of this thing, but someone managed to force me into it, and now I’m bound to a magical contract against my will.”
“I know something about that,” Rias said, sounding suddenly angry.
She looked at him like she was assessing him in some way and started twisting a ring around her right ring finger.
“Stand up,” she after a moment.
“Why?” Harry asked, though when she gave him a blank stare, he decided to do as she asked.
“Turn around,” Rias said.
“All the way, that’s it.”
“Am I to make the dragon dizzy?” Harry asked sarcastically.
“It might be a better plan than trying to outfly a creature with wings,” Rias bit back.
“You can sit back down.”
“In my defense, the man who gave that might plan might actually be insane,” Harry said.
“I just figured that an insane plan was better than none.”
“That’s debatable,” Rias said, reaching out to him.
When he tensed up, she said, “relax.
I just want to get a feel for what I’m dealing with here.”
In the palm of her hand, a red glyph appeared, and she hovered it over him, moving all over his body without touching him.
“Hmm, you’re powerful, that’s for sure,” Rias commented.
“Not terribly trained, it would seem.
You have far more potential than the other two magicians I’ve met, and…oh, there’s something very strange up here.”
“That was where I was hit by the killing curse as a baby,” Harry said.
Rias’ eyes shot to his, and she said, “explain.”
“To make a long story short, some powerful dickhead decided to kill my parents and me when I was a year old,” Harry said.
“He killed them, but when he tried to kill me, his spell failed and his body was destroyed.
No one knows what happened except that I lived and got an annoyingly conspicuous scar from it.”
“Well, whatever happened, it left some lingering magic,” Rias said.
“Regardless, I think that I can help you.”
“What’s it going to cost?” Harry asked, sounding every bit as nervous as he felt.
“Not your soul, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Rias laughed.
“No, your soul would remain right in here where it belongs.
You would become my servant for life, a life that will last potentially thousands of years, by the way.”
“Huh?” Harry asked.