A/N

Diavo- Thank you so much for all you kind comments :D Potions in my mind have the same effect as spells, they use the bodies resources but speed up the process or neurtalize poisons the body can't neutralise on its own but they still rely on the body's energy, otherwise the hospital wing and st Mungo's would be completely redundant

Sonnenfrost- Thnk you :) I needed to find some way for an Akuma to cover its tracks while living in a town and that seemed the best way- horrible as it is, its just true that people don't really care about the homeless so they seemed like the ones that noone would notice dissapearing

Raychaell Dionzeros- YAY ^^ Me too :P

777angeloflove- Me too :/ she's a tough cookie though, she'll be fine :)

Akuma Lee Crimson- Don't worry, this year there will be 'the meeting' though it won't be for a wee bit yet sorry :/

Allen waved over to Hermione and Harry as they finally reached the Great Hall, gesturing to the free seats beside him and Ron. They made their way through the press to reach them as quickly as possible, both trying to ignore the stares that followed them. Malfoy had obviously been filling in as many people as physically possible about the dementor incident and Harry felt like the entire student body was judging him. They collapsed gratefully into the seats and tried to look unflustered as Dumbledore began his speech. The Great Hall was buzzing with excited chatter as the students greeted new additions to their houses and dug into the delicious food, one topic dominating all the conversations- Dementors. Allen greeted them with a smile when they finally got a chance to talk "It's good to see you all again" He said politely but Hermione ignored the formal greeting and threw her arms around him. Allen's eyes widened with surprise but he then relaxed into the hug, blushing faintly

"How come you lot were so late" He asked, staring around the hall at the bustling body of teenagers, the excitement and nervous practically tangible in the air

"Woah mate, you first. What happened to you?" Ron exclaimed, completely ignoring the question and staring blatantly at Allen's bandaged arm and suspiciously padded robes which he apparently hadn't noticed all throughout the sorting

"Oh, nothing really" Allen said airily, giving Ron a meaningful look "Had an argument with a couple of adolescent salamanders when I was helping Hagrid in the grounds" He gave a rather pointed look to the surrounding eavesdropping students who- realising that they had been discovered- began talking loudly to each other and Ron flushed "Sorry" he muttered under his breath. Harry immediately became Mai's personal playground as she scrambled onto his lap without so much as a 'if you please'

"Hey Kiniiri!" She squealed in excitement, wrapping her arms around his neck but before he could recover from the shock and greet her in return, she turned around and began playing quite contentedly with the cutlery on the table, utterly ignoring him.

"Kiniiri?" Ron asked curiously. Harry flushed darkly

"Ah, nothing. Erm, you were asking about the train Allen?" He shot Allen a pointed look and he took the hint, repeating his question. Thankfully Ron hardly noticed the change in topic and he began to tell an- only slightly- exaggerated recount of the events on the train. His version oddly enough left out the bit where he panicked and according to him, he had managed to wrestle with the creature before Lupin 'finished it off' without anyone else noticing which was quite a fete if you thought about it. Harry and Hermione exchanged longsuffering looks before filling Allen in on what really happened. To Harry's relief, Allen didn't so much as bat an eyelid when he heard that Harry had collapsed and merely shuddered, thanking his luck stars that he hadn't been on the train. Once the noise in the hall had reached its standard close-to-deafening level, Harry repeated Ron's question/ Allen shrugged rather dismissivly and told them he'd had a rather bad run in with a pairomaniac Akuma. Harry and Ron both accepted this without much though and resumed their previous discussion about exactly how likely it was that Hagrid would set them a fire-demon as their first lesson

"You'd better watch it Allen" Ron joked "By the end of the year you'll have more burns than Charlie!" Hermione however didn't join in the laughter and watched Allen closely, curiosity written all over her face

" I thought Akuma were easy enough to handle. You've never been burnt before. What changed?"

Allen squirmed uncomfortably under her scrutiny

"Really it's nothing. This one was just a little stronger than what I'm used to. It happens" He proceeded to stuff copious amounts of every surrounding dish into his mouth to ward off any more questions. Hermione however- used to Ron as a friend- didn't let this deter her. If there was one thing she hated more than anything else it was being in the dark. And she was concerned about Allen's safety. That too...

"So can they all shoot fire" She inquired, making it clear that she wasn't about to drop the subject "Why have you never been burnt before?"

Allen gulped down his mouthful of food, frantically trying to think of a way to get her off his back

"This one was just different" He said, smiling his best I-am-absolutely-fine smile

"Most can't do that but don't worry, from now on out I'm going to be much more careful. It won't happen again"

Hermione narrowed her eyes, clearly not believing a word he was saying

"How come Madame Pomfrey hasn't fixed you up yet? You must've given Dumbledore quite a scare, coming home burnt to a crisp!" Ron chipped in, grinning ear to ear at the thought of a blackened, smoking Allen arriving at Dumbledore's doorstep. Allen took a deep breath, resigning himself to answering all their questions

"Akuma are magical creatures so the normal remedies don't work and Dumbledore was worried yeah, but he's fine now" Thankfully at this stage Hagrid came and distracted them from their cross-examination leaving Allen to recover and dwell on the unpleasant memory of exactly how Dumbledore had reacted to his injuries


"...completely irresponsible and utterly foolish. What on earth do you think you were doing, putting yourself in such a dangerous position without so much as informing me? Especially considering the delicate situation we now find ourselves in- the entire wizarding community is in uproar, the authorities on high alert, watching every single suspicious event for a hint of Black's whereabouts. What were you planning on doing if they had found out you were involved in that fire? How would you have talked your way out of that?" Dumbledore paced the floor furiously as he ranted. Allen listlessly watched him, not even bothering to try and reply. He had been stupid but most of all he was just too exhausted to even bother trying to defend himself. He only snapped out of his silence after Dumbledore suggested they wipe Alexi's memory as insurance

"That would not be the best approach" He said as calmly as possible, clenching his gloved hands tightly together and doing his utmost to keep his expression calm and blasé "So far this just looks like a house fire- if you interfere in such a large way, it would seriously increase the chances that we would be linked to it. What reason would you have to visit her? And wouldn't it be even more suspicious if she could remember nothing about the fire?" Dumbledore conceded the point and sat down on the chair opposite Allen with a sigh. He looked drained Allen noticed sympathetically- how he managed to juggle all the responsibilities he took on despite his obvious age Allen would never understand

"Look, I know it is tough for you having all this on your shoulders at such a young age but you must realise, I put this pressure on you because I know you can handle it. You managed to look after that little toerag" He gestured affectionately to the dozing Mai "So I know that I can trust you to take care of both your educational and moral demands without letting the two clash. I am just warning you that you are going to find that much harder in the coming year. We are to have Dementors placed around the school against my express objections and we are to be watched closer than we ever have been before. I need to know that I can trust you to do your job discreetly and to avoid ever getting yourself into this kind of situation again"


Allen had solemnly sworn to follow this command to the letter with absolutely no idea as to exactly how he would pull it off. Dumbledore had informed him of a passage that led out into a small wizarding town nearby Hogwarts. It had previously been blocked but he had cleared it for Allen's use however as a precaution against anyone else using it, Allen had needed to recite a blood-vow so that only he would be able to enter it. He had also had to perfect the disillusionment charm over the remaining week of the holiday until he passed Dumbledore's inspection. It was not however getting out that troubled Allen, it was the Akuma. He had no idea what he would do if he was ever faced with a level two again. It was pure luck that he had survived the last attack and despite many attempts, he had been unable to activate his innocence to the gun-form again and without that he knew he had no chance whatsoever of so much as injuring it. He wished he had someone to explain to him why his arm had done what it had done and how he could make it do it again but unless he had plans to sign up to the black order, he would just have to puzzle through this himself. He was just going to have to do what he could, which included a strict exercise programme- he had become complacent over the past year, with comfort and safety surrounding him and he had lost many of the skills he had honed while living on the streets but he was just going to have to buckle down again and get his head back in the game. This was no time to be slacking. The next morning a surprised Harry woke up to see Allen performing press ups on a chair precariously balanced on one leg. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to be sure that he wasn't still asleep

"What are you doing mate?" He asked incredulously. Allen started at the noise and the already unstable chair wobbled then skidded across the stone floor. Allen pushed off the backrest at the last moment, landing in a handstand on the floor and letting his legs down behind him so he ended up in a bridge position looking at Harry upside down

"You gave me the fright of my life" He moaned, slowly lowering himself to the floor where he lay trying to regain his breath

"What were you doing?" Harry repeated weakly, feeling like he had just aged a decade, watching him tumble toward the unforgiving floor

"It was just an exercise I used to do while I was in the circus" Allen replied, getting up off the floor and straitening himself off, tugging his gloves more firmly over his hands "Need to keep in shape" He grinned and then his stomach let of an ungodly growl. The two boys laughed and after waking up a sleepy Ron, they made their way down to the Great Hall.


"He really is rather rude" Allen observed as they walked past Malfoy, who was taking great pleasure out of mocking Harry. Ron and Harry both exchanged incredulous looks

"Rude is the word you are going to choose to describe Malfoy?" Ron asked, his voice indignant. He then proceeded to reel off a long list of the things you could be justified in calling Malfoy. Rude did not make the list oddly enough

"Ron!" exclaimed Hermione as she caught the tail end of the conversation. Ron merely shrugged and gave her a you-know-its-true look, piling as much food as he could onto his plate before Allen could reach the table. Recovering from her indignation, Hermione started to geek-out over her new school subjects, attracting some unwanted attention to her overly crowded timetable

"Talking of school" She said loudly over Ron's inquiries "Isn't Mai starting school?" Allen started at the sound of Mai's name and peered around his teetering mountain of bangers and mash, somewhat resembling a chipmunk with his cheeks stuffed full of food. He nodded in conformation as he swallowed "Yeah, Dumbledore insisted on hiring a tutor personally. You should have seen the number of interviews we had! There were a couple brownies I really liked but Dumbledore said that they would have just spoiled her rotten and there was a fairy we contemplated for a while however her voice- gave you a splitting headache so eventually we settled on a dryad called Rhamnella. She's strict enough to keep even Mai in line. Nice though" As soon as she heard Mai was being taught by a dryad Hermione's eyes lit up and she began to inform the definitely not even vaguely interested boys about every minute detail of their race. "I wonder if she'd let me ask her a few questions?" She mused out loud to no one in particular as the group made their long and winding way to the North tower, stopping frequently to try and regain their breath and bearings

"Probably best if you don't" Allen said rolling his eyes at her back "Don't want to disturb Mai from her studies"

"Oh no of course not!" Hermione exclaimed, sounding shocked that he would even suggest such a thing. The boys all smirked at each other

"Ah I give up!" Harry moaned in desperation and turned to the nearest painting to ask directions


Eventually the group made their slow way around the last spiral in the staircase and stood at the top, panting until they had regained their breath. Allen looked in trepidation at the trapdoor in the ceiling

"What's the matter Allen? Afraid of heights" Ron smirked

"Nah" Allen replied glumly "Just not a fan of fortune tellers. Dumbledore bullied me into taking this stupid subject- something about 'trying new things' and 'broadening my horizons' If I don't like this class, I am swapping strait to ancient ruins. Sounds so much more fun" He missed the look that Harry and Ron exchanged as the ladder descended from the ceiling and slowly the whole class ascended into the perfume and pouffe filled room. Trelawney made her way around the students, airily predicting tragedies wherever she paused along the way. She passed by Allen on her way to inform Dean that he would sprain his ankle in the near future and Allen breathed a sigh of relief into his cup of tea but then

"Wait!" Trelawney roared causing the entire class to jump and poor Neville to land on the floor for the second time. She slowly turned around, her head tilted back to the ceiling and her arms outstretched, trembling "There is darkness, such darkness" Her voice was harsh, quite unlike the breathy tones she had previously been using. She stopped abruptly in from of Allen and lowered her gaze to his

"Ah yes. Your curse not only fills your aura but your very appearance- you are marred by your fate. The desperate past. The hopeless battle. The dark future. And the shadow. The growing shadow. You feel it, don't you, feeding and growing and solidifying, eating at your soul. Gnawing at your very being" Her eyes filled up her glasses as she leaned closer to the wide-eyes Allen

"Who are you?" She hissed

Allen shakily got to his feet, his face blanched but expressionless. He opened his mouth as if to say something, and the entire class watched him, the silence so heavy, it seemed to press down on him, restricting his lungs. He then turned around and left without a word, pulling open the trapdoor then letting it shut quietly behind him

Trelawney started with surprise, now bereft of her centrepiece then her eyes lit up again when she saw Harry "Let us take a look at your cup dear" She said, a creepy grin filling her face


Allen blindly strode through the school, paying no attention to where he was going and eventually choosing a door at random to walk through so that he wouldn't end up meeting Mrs Norris or Filtch along his way. The room he walked into was surprisingly huge and thankfully completely deserted. To Allen's pleasant surprise, he found it full of training devices- dummies, swords, punching bags, weights and whole cupboards overflowing with other such things. He set to it with a will, hammering his frustration out on the punch bag until the sweat poured down his face. He continued pummelling it until he heard the bell go in the back of his mind. He caught the swinging bag and lent his forehead against it, his chest heaving

"Tch, call that punching?" came an irritated voice to his left. Allen swung around with a yell of fear to see a flickering hologram instructor, looking as bored as a hologram can

"Idiot apprentice, you'll need to do much better than that" It sneered. Allen squinted at in, waving his hand in front of its eyes- nope, definitely a hologram- it must have been left by whoever owned all this stuff. Ignoring the insults that were thrown after him, Allen picked up his bag and schooled his expression back to its usual passive state before exiting the room, taking careful note of the rooms position before making his way to Transfiguration