Alfie and The Exorcism of Emily Rose

-Written by ArtOholic using the character, Alfie Hayes, from the Escapades of Teddy Lupin by NymphxDora-

Alfie stared at the shite-eating grin on Teddy's face, his own face contorted from worry. He watched as Teddy's eyes turned a bright emerald and his hair changed from its usual turquoise to a violent shade of pink spikes as the latter slowly brought out the rectangular case he had hidden behind his back.

Alfie swallowed and laughed nervously, desperately trying to focus on anything that wasn't the DVD Teddy was now holding up. Unfortunately for him, his curiosity was much greater than his desire to run away and his eyes landed on the cover.

His breath hitched at the sight of the bold red lettering that read The Exorcism of Emily Rose with a scary looking tree in the background. At the forefront was the image of the back of a girl as she walked towards the tree, and everything else was covered in white mist.

He whimpered softly when Teddy thrust it into his hands and then held it as far as possible. Teddy's eyes turned a lighter green and his hair wilted slightly, turning a brownish-maroon as he looked at Alfie with worry.

"Mate, are you alright? If you don't want to watch it, we can always watch something else—"

"No!" Alfie said with far more conviction than he actually felt, but nonetheless, Teddy brightened immediately and his candyfloss hair stood straight up as he strode into the living room—Alfie in tow.

Ella looked up from the sofa with pursed lips and pointed at the telly, an almighty scowl on her face. "About time you two lollygaggers arrived! I was going absolutely mental trying to turn this thing off!"

She waved her hand at the LED screen that was blearing loud music and Alfie forgot his fear momentarily to grin down at Ella. It wasn't every day that he, Alfie Hayes, knew something that she, Ella Anderson, didn't. He picked up the sleek black remote from the table and held it up so Ella could see. "You've to press this red button, see? And then it goes off."

He demonstrated by clicking on the power button and Ella's eyes went wide and a flush crept up her cheeks.

"It's as simple as that," Alfie said with a wide grin and Ella shot him a look.

"I knew that!"

"Why'd you ask how to turn it off, then?"

"I did not!"

"Yeah you did!"

"I didn't! I only said I was going mental trying. I never said I didn't know how!"

Alfie rolled his eyes and shared a knowing look with Teddy as the Metamorphmagus flopped down beside Ella with a laugh. "Don't lets start arguing, now. Alfie, mind putting it in so we can start?"

Ella promptly smacked Teddy on the arm and the two boys looked on with confused amusement as the girl turned a mighty shade of red. "Don't—Don't say putting it in like that!" she blustered and turned away, now completely red in the face.

Both boys shared wide-eyed looks and Alfie felt his own face flush as he hurriedly turned towards the DVD player and placed the DVD in it. Teddy was guffawing loudly behind him and Ella was unsuccessfully trying to cover her embarrassing blunder by scolding him.

After a lot of purposeless fiddling and dawdling, and Ella and Teddy asking if he was done a half dozen times, Alfie finally sighed and trudged back to the sofa. He fell back onto it beside Ella and she shot him a look. Teddy reached forwards to turn the TV on, but Ella stopped him and then pointed at his hair.

"Is that really necessary?" she asked and Teddy gave her an affronted look.

"I'm only excited! Is that a bad thing, now?"

"No," Ella replied slowly as though she was talking to a child, "but it's ridiculous and absolutely unsuitable for a horror movie."

Teddy nodded thoughtfully and morphed his hair so it fell down his face in straight, jet-black locks that covered half his face and gave him the look of those Muggle teenagers Alfie remembered from before he went to Hogwarts; the ones that wore all black and heavy make-up.

Teddy then turned his skin to a sickly pale shade and even made himself look almost anorexic. Alfie stilled as Teddy smiled slowly—and it looked like a grimace more than a smile—and waited for Ella to tell him off. But, to his utter dismay, Ella simply nodded in approval and sat back, pulling the thick blanket Alfie had laid out, over her legs.

"Let's start, then," Teddy said in an eerie voice that caused Alfie to break out in gooseflesh. He huddled lower in his seat and pulled the blanket over himself so the only parts of him that were seen were his eyes and the top of his head. Ella rolled her eyes at him and leaned towards him as Teddy started the film.

"Alfie, if you don't want to watch it—"

"I'm fine, Ella," Alfie snapped in a muffled voice and Ella pursed her lips at him.

"Fine, then. But you better not wet your pants or start screaming."

Alfie gulped and drew himself as close together as he could, watching through squinted eyes as the initial credits ended. He tensed as the screen went black and prepared himself for whatever was about to come next—

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!" screamed a voice from the TV.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" screamed Alfie.

Both Ella and Teddy jolted because of how loudly Alfie had screamed and turned to stare at him. They shared a look and Ella slowly reached forwards to elicit a trembling Alfie from within the folds of the blanket.

"Alfie?"

He turned fearful eyes to her and she smiled gently at him. She nodded for Teddy to un-pause the film and Alfie froze in his seat, hands pressed against his ears and eyes squeezed shut. After a time, he felt Ella's cool hands pull his own from his ears and cracked his eyes open to see her offer him a small smile.

"It's alright, now," she whispered softly and he nodded slowly and settled back against the sofa. He breathed deeply, still trembling from his previous moment of terror and thanking Merlin and Jesus for not making him wet his pants. He'd never be able to live that down.

He kept himself distracted for about forty minutes after the film started and then began sinking low in his seat as things started to get scary again. He shut his eyes, completely unwilling to let himself be traumatised, and a minute later, he felt Ella grab onto his arm.

He looked up at her through lidded eyes to see that she was sitting completely still, her eyes as large as saucers and her lower lip trembling as she clung onto Alfie tightly. The scene turned less scary soon and Ella relaxed, her grasp on his arm loosening and causing him to wince at how tight it had been. He rubbed his arm and glanced to see that Teddy and Ella were staring at the screen with rapt attention.

Alfie then decided that he would go make them some juice and popcorn, but as he slowly got up, Ella grabbed his wrist and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Where are you going?" she asked softly and he motioned towards the kitchen. She shook her head and tugged on his arm. He felt something warm settle in his stomach as he eyed Ella for a second and then nodded. He sat back onto the sofa and pulled the blanket over him just as the film went into another scary flashback.

Alfie felt Ella tense beside him and without thinking, reached for her hand from under the blanket. He felt her still and mentally berated himself for being stupid, but then he felt her relax and her fingers intertwine with his. Just as the girl in the film—who was apparently Emily Rose—began screaming, Ella clutched onto his hand and huddled closer to him.

The scene turned quiet and they watched with bated breath, awaiting the next horrifying moment. It never came, but Ella never moved away or pulled her hand free, causing the warm feeling in Alfie's stomach to triplicate. All of a sudden, he was forgetting that he was absolutely terrified of horror films and absolutely hated them, and was concentrating on the fact that Ella might just be even more frightened than him and just be putting up a front.

He grinned to himself as Ella whimpered softly beside him and shifted slightly when she huddled closer.

But all too soon, Ella clinging to him turned into the two of them clinging onto each other when a particular scene, the flashback of the actual exorcism, started. Alfie breathed in sharply as the lights went out in the film and felt Ella still beside him.

They continued to watch with bated breath, absolutely terrified, when the lights in the living room went off. Ella screamed and threw herself at Alfie and Alfie sat frozen to the spot as the screen crackled and then went black. The two sat completely still, barely breathing, for what seemed like ages, and finally Ella raised her head.

Her eyes looked past Alfie and then she paled and started to tear up. Her hold on Alfie's arm grew unbearably tight and although every cell in his body was telling him not to, he slowly turned to look over his shoulder.

And there, standing less than three feet away, was a woman. Her long, dirty-black hair fell down her face, almost completely obscuring it from view, except for the red eyes that peered through the gaps; her tattered white night gown was ripped and smeared with what seemed like blood; her arms were held in front of her and her bluish, skeletal fingers were cut and missing their nails. She stepped forwards and tilted her head, an eerie, unearthly sound leaving her mouth.

And they were screaming.

Alfie was screaming.

Ella was screaming.

They were clinging onto each other for dear life and screaming.

They were crying and sobbing and begging and screaming.

They were still sitting on the sofa, unable to move, while screaming the whole time.

And neither of them seemed to notice, in all their terrified screaming, that Teddy wasn't beside them, and seemed to have also forgotten the fact that he was a Metamorphmagus.