Of Wizards, Akuma, and Exorcist

Twenty-Nine: Mistletoe


Disclaimers: I do not own any D. Gray-Man or Harry Potter characters/settings. They rightfully belong to Mr. Hoshino (D. Gray-Man) and Ms. Rowling (Harry Potter). Also, some conversations between the Harry Potter characters are direct quotes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and that also does not belong to me!


"How're you going to get back to the Burrow?" Harry asked Ron one day. It was December. Snow fell to the ground in silent harmony, and the winter holidays were just around the corner. Harry sent Ron a dark look, jealous that Ron was going to be able to see his family on such special occasions like Christmas.

"But you're coming too!" Ron said, surprised. "Didn't I say? Mym wrote and told me to invite you weeks ago!"

"Really?" Harry asked. His spirits soared at the news. Beside them, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Have you all seen Lavi lately?" Lee Jordan asked, appearing out of thin air. "He hasn't been coming to D.A. meetings, and the last time we saw him was that one week in November at Hagrid's. Fred, George, and I've tried asking Kanda and Allen, but neither of them have told us anything!"

"How are we supposed to know?" Ron asked back. "Allen and Lenalee haven't been around much either, the only places we see them are at the D.A meetings, and even that's every other time."

That was true, Harry thought. Ever since the week since they'd helped out Hagrid (to no avail), Allen and Lavi had mysteriously began to disappear. Allen showed himself several times in the past few weeks, but Lavi had completely gone, as if he was never there. Lenalee, too, had disappeared from her usual place with Ginny. Most of the other Exorcists had stopped coming to the D.A. meetings as well.

"I'm really worried," Hermione said as Lee Jordan ran off. "I wonder what happened to them."

"Nothing big," Ron assured her. "I mean, they're supposed to have the 'crystals of God' or whatever, right? I don't think old hags like Umbridge will be able to take them out."

"Do you honestly, really, believe that they have the power of God with them?" Hermione asked softly. "I mean, how can someone be born with something as holy as a crystal of God? I can't believe them completely, especially since they suddenly left..They might have, you know, double-crossed-"

"Get over it, Hermione," Harry said. "This isn't about believing what they say about God. This is more or less about trusting them to be our friends."

"Yes, but..."

Harry didn't remember what Hermione said after that. He was still a bit irritated with her for not believing the Exorcists, but they had disappeared suddenly...

"Hi," Allen greeted Harry in the Room of Requirement on the day of the last meeting before the holidays.

"Allen! Where have you been?" Harry demanded, just barely noticing the Christmas decorations that hung everywhere.

"...Missions," Allen replied shortly and looked around. "Nice," he said.

Harry grumbled, taking notice of the baubles hanging form the ceiling. "I'd bet it's Dobby's doing. Allen, help me get them down..."

The boys had only managed to get the last bauble down when the door creaked open and Luna Lovegood walked in gazing around the room dreamily as always. "Hello," she greeted vaguely. 'These are nice, did you put them up?"

"No," Harry said, "it was Dobby the house elf.

"Mistletoe."

"Whut? Oh, gosh!" Harry gasped, jumping out from under it as Allen chuckled behind them.

"Good thinking," Luna said seriously. "It's often infested with Nargles."

"What are-?" Allen began, but was cut off when Angelina, Alicia, and Katie stumbled in, all of them breathless and looking chilled to the bone. Allen abandoned his question and immeditely walked over to them. He conjured up several blankets and handed them to the girls.

"Thanks," Angelina said distractedly, shedding her cloak and throwing it in a corner. "Well," she said, turning to Harry, "we've replaced you."

"Replaced me?" Harry repeated.

"You and Fred and George. We've another Seeker!"

"Who?"

"Ginny Weasley," Katie answered. Harry gaped at her.

"Yeah, I know," Angelina said. "But she's pretty good, actually. Nothing on you, of course," she added, throwing Harry a dirty look, "but as we can't have you..."

Allen looked troubled. "Dont' blame Harry," he said hastily. "It's not his fault Malfoy's a git."

"And about the Beaters?" Harry asked, his voice oddly thick.

"Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper," Alicia answered gloomily. "Niether of them are brilliant, but compared with the rest of the idiots who turned up..."

Harry was saved from the gloomy atmosphere when Ron, Hermione, and Neville walked in five minutes later, looking disgruntled and bundled in coats. The room slowly started to fill, and Harry was delighted to see that Lenalee, Krory, and Miranda joined them this time as well. The only people missing were Lavi and Kanda. Shaking the thought out of his mind, Harry looked around at the people sitting around him and said, "Okay. I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right now before a three week break-"

"We're not doing anything new?" Zacharias Smith drawled in a rather loud whisper. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come..."

"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then," Fred Weasley said loudly, causing a wave of sniggering to pass through the crowd. Harry spotted Cho Chang laughing and felt his stomach flip over.

'We can practice in pairs," he called. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, just for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."

Harry was getting used by now to the people obeying his instructions. At first it had seemed so strange...Allen and Lenalee were off in a corner near Cho and her friend, and Harry saw that the two of them might even be better than him at casting spells: the accuracy of their spells was amazing. Harry was paired up with Neville, and after freezing and unfreezing three times in a row, he had the boy join Ron and Hermione again and began to walk around the room. Cho smiled at him when he passed, and it was Lenalee's knowing look that made him resist walking past several more times.

After ten minutes, Harry had them lay out the cushions over the floor, and since there wasn't enough space for all of them to practice at once, half the group practiced while the other hald observed. Harry himself was surprised by everyone's progress, and he was almost disappointed when he had to call a stop to the practicing.

"You're getting really good," he said, beaming at everyone. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff- maybe even Patronuses."

"Really?" several people gasped, and there was a buzz of excited murmurs. Then, in the usual groups of twos and threes, the D.A. memebers dispersed. Ron and Hermione were gone by the time Harry noticed, and the Exorcists left as well, bidding Harry a Merry Christmas, and he only vaguely heard Lenalee gasp something about Allen and birthdays.

He glanced back into the room. At Cho, who was telling her friend Marietta to go on before her. The girl sent Harry a dirty glare before she marched off down the corridor, but Harry was pretending hard to be straightening the cushion stack while waiting for Cho to talk to him. Instead, however, he heard a loud sniff. Surprised, he turned around and saw Cho, standing there, tears pouring down her face.

"Wha-?"

He had no idea what he was supposed to do. Cho was simply standing before him, in the middle of the room, crying silently. Without warning, too.

"What's up?" he asked timidly, walking up to her. He'd never dealt with a tearful girl before.

Cho shook her head and wiped her eyes roughly on her sleeve. "I'm- I'm sorry," she said thickly. "I suppose...it's just...learning all this stuff...It just makes me...wonder whether...if he'd known it all...he'd still be alive..."

Harry's heart, which had been leapiing with excitement in his Adam's apple, sank down to his navel in that moment. He should've expected it, he should've known. Cho wanted to talk about Cedric Diggory, the boy who was killed by Voldemort last summer. Right in front of his eyes.

Something hot and nasty boiled in him. What was it? Jealousy that Cedric still held Cho's heart even after death? Was it anger at Cedric for dying and leaving Cho all alone to cry? Or was it a more intense hatred towards Voldemort for killing Cedric?

"He did know this stuff," Harry told her, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "He was really good at it, or he could never have got to the middle of that maze. But if Voldemort really wants to kill you, you don't stand a chance."

"You survived when you were just a baby," Cho said softly.

"Yeah, well," Harry said, wanting to leave. "I dunno why, nor does anyone else, so it's nothing to be proud of." Why did she have to bring up that day now? He didn't want to talk about death, he didn't want to talk about Cedric. Why couldn't she simply have wished him a Merry Christmas and left it at that?

"Oh don't go!" Cho gasped when he made as if to go for the door. "I'm really sorry to get all upset likethis...I didn't mean to..."

She hiccuped, and Harry stayed, watching her. Even when her eyes were red and puffy, she was still extremely pretty, but that didn't lighten his mood one bit. He'd always thought Christmas was a time for someone to be happy. But maybe memories of Christmas spent with Cedric were making her teary- why Cedric? He honestly didn't want to stay and talk about Cedric, but he couldn't leave. Would someone have forgotten something in the room? Maybe someone would walk in, and Cho would be forced to stop talking about the dead boy...

"I know it must be terrible for you," Cho said, wiping her eyes again. "Me mentioning Cedric, when you saw him die...I suppose you just want to forget about it..."

It was true of course. He didn't want to remember the death of someone forever, but saying it would sound heartless.

"You're a r-really good teacher, you know," Cho said, smiling a watery smile. "I've never been able to Stun anything before."

"Thanks," Harry said awkwardly. Still watching her as she sniffed.

Their eyes met, and they looked at each other for a moment. Maybe it was five minutes. An hour, maybe. But this moment felt long. Harry felt half of him wanting to bolt form the room, to run away, but the other half had glued his feet to the floor, and he could only stare into Cho's dark eyes.

"Mistletoe," she whispered, pointing to the white berries over his head.

"Yeah," Harry said, hoping his dry mouth would allow him to speak for another minute. "It's probably full of nargles, though."

"What are nargles?"

He hadn't asked Luna, but even if he had, it probably was one of her strange ideas. "No idea," he answered. "You'd have to ask Loony. Luna, I mean." He tongue was twisting, his mind was numb as if he'd been Stunned. Cho had moved closer to him.

She made a strange noise that was somewhere halfway between a sob and a laugh. She was so close to him now, he could count every freckle on her nose. "I really like you, Harry," she said, and Harry felt his thoughts process shut down. His arms, legs, and brain seemed to go stiff and limp, paralyzed by the tingling feeling running through his brains, into ever cell.

Too close. Cho was too close to him. He could see every tear clinging to her long eyelashes...if only he could wipe them away...

He was glad nobody had forgotten anything in the room.


Hello readers,

This was a question among the reviews:

Q: How did they learn about/get to the future?

A: It's, um...a secret. It'll come up at the end of the story, and honestly, it isn't really all that dramatic.