A/N: Ok! Sorry about the wait guys! I've been super busy, and I have a bunch of other story ideas just begging to be written so I've been jumping in between stories. Once again, sorry about all the mistakes I make in writing this story. I'm a beginner guys, my descriptions can be a little iffy sometimes. Anyway, on to the chapter!

(Sorry about the grammar and spelling mistakes)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters!
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Chapter 3: Soul Suckers

After the whole incident, things have been pretty good in Harry's opinion. The Dursleys have left him alone for the most part and with BJ's help, avoiding Dudley and his gang has never been easier. Of course, there were minor hiccups (he had to hold back Beetlejuice form committing murder multiple times), but overall, Harry was ready to call this a successful summer!

"I want you out of the house."

...Or not.

"What?"

Aunt Petunia scowled, hating having to repeat herself, " I'm hosting evening tea today. I expect you to be out of sight for the rest of the afternoon, am I clear?."

Harry nodded, "Crystal."

Petunia turned away to continue arranging the lavish tea set she had taken out of the 'special' cupboard.

Beetlejuice, who had been hovering over his shoulder stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry to the horse-like woman.

"I could trip her."

Harry rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation, "For the last time, you can't maim, murder, or scare my relatives!" He hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

BJ pouted, "Aw! But babes~!"

"No."

With that, Harry spun on the heel of his foot and walked out of the house, maybe he could find the local library? Harry wasn't a studious person (not after being beaten for getting an A in a spelling test), so he hasn't seen the point of looking for the public library. But now, maybe he could find something about his mysterious companion. After all, muggles did have the right idea when it came to magic and the supernatural. So maybe he could find some clues on ghosts? It was a long shot, but Harry was willing to look. Now, the only problem was getting rid of BJ for a few hours…

"Hey, what do you do for a liv- I mean, nonliving?"

The ghost who was floating on his back facing the cloudy sky hummed, "Ah well, originally I was a social worker after I died but eh. Fuck that right? So then I tried being a salesman- to sell some of my ideas, ya know? But that was a waste of time. Oh! I was a lawyer once! Yeah, those were the good times! Back when I was alive I..." Beetlejuice paused, frowning.

For some reason, no matter how hard he tried, Beetlejuice could not remember why (though he could guess, he wasn't a nice demon after all) or how he ended up dead. Was he born this way? Who- what- is he?

"BJ? BJ? BJ. Beetlejuice!"

Beetlejuice startled, "Uh- what? I swear I don't need a wife mom!"

Blinking away the haze of memories, BJ chuckled sheepishly at the unimpressed stare the kid was giving him.

"Ah, sorry 'bout that kid. What were you saying?"

"I was saying," Harry dragged the last word out in annoyance, "that you should go and do your business or whatever in the Netherworld."

"Yeah, right I- wait." The demon squinted his eyes in suspicion, "You're not trying to get rid of me, are you?"

Harry sputtered and shrilled out a "What?!" clearing his throat in nervousness he continued, "I m-mean, no. Of…of course not! Why…why would y oi u think that?!"

"Uh-huh." Beetlejuice gazed at the young wizard, unimpressed, "We really need to work on that."

Now Harry was confused, "Work on what?"

Beetlejuice groaned and gently landed on the concrete to walk beside the kid. Shoving his hands into his pockets, BJ casually said, "I mean, you should learn how to lie better. So…what's this really about?"

Harry bowed his head in defeat. He knew it was going to be next to impossible to pull one over the ghost. Harry had only known him for a couple of weeks but he could tell that much from the start. The boy-who-lived mauled over what to say. On one hand he could tell the truth and potentially make BJ angry with him for trying to snoop. On the other, he could try to lie and risk getting caught, causing BJ to get angry anyways. Really, it was a lose-lose situation. Finally deciding on what to say, Harry opened his mouth to reply to Beetlejuices' question, only to stop short when he realized where they had ended up.

Without him noticing, Harry had unconsciously walked to the nearby park. The park itself wasn't the issue though. No, it was the fact that everyone knew that this was Dudley gangs' territory.

Realizing that the young wizard was no longer walking beside him BJ glanced back with a questioning look, "What's wrong?"

Harry responded with a shaky, "We should probably go back."

Too late. A couple of meters away, Harry spotted the on coming group, Beetlejuice also noticing the crew of bullies tried to usher the boy away.

"Yeah, on second thought, let's get out of here kid."

Just as they thought they we're going to be able to leave without trouble, there was a shout.

"Freak!"

Both ghost and boy froze. In an instant they where surrounded (well, technically Harry was the one surrounded, Beetlejuice could leave whenever he liked).

"Well, well, if it isn't The Freak of Privet Drive!" Dudley sneered and the others jeered, relishing in being able to pick on who they perceived to be weaker than them. Physically, Harry was indeed weaker than even the weakest gang member, but, when you take magic into account…

Well, lets just say Harry had survived much more than anyone gave him credit for.

"What do you want, Dudley?" Harry bravely asked.

"What I want? What I want is for you to leave my family alone. But we never get want we want, do we Freak?"

Now, Harry usually took the verbal and physical abuse in silence, it was the best way to minimize the damage. But, well, there's so much abuse one can take without lashing out, especially since Harry had inherited his mothers short temper. It also helped that he had Beetlejuice next to him offering support.

"Really, Duddykins? Your weight seems to disagree with you." Harry snarked back, "After all, it's not everyday someone is able to see a whale outside an aquarium!"

Beetlejuice snickered, conjuring up 3D glasses and a popcorn bag filled with squirming bugs. He threw a dung beetle into his mouth, loving the way Harry was putting his bully of a cousin in his place, "You tell him babes!" He cackled.

Likewise, Dudley's friends ohhed in shock and amusement at the well thought out snap back causing the blond boy to turn red in rage and embarrassment. Seething he retorted, "Yeah well, I'm not the one who cries out for a bloke in his sleep!"

The demon snarled at the kids whale of a cousin, curing at the fact that he couldn't be seen. He could really use his best scare-face right now. He eyed his new friend in worry, knowing what a touchy subject Harry's dreams were.

Harry was white in fear, "Where did you-"

Dudley continued with vengeance, seeing an opening in Harry's defenses. Raising the tone of his voice, he mocked Harry, "Cedric! Cedric! Cedric no!"

The others howled with laughter. Laughter that seemed to echo in Harry's head, ringing repeatedly until they changed and twisted to resemble Voldemort's high, cruel laughter.

Feeling something snap within him. Brandishing his wand and taking a step forward until the tip was digging into his cousin's jugular, Harry snarled, "One more word out of you Dudley and I swear. I. Will. End. You!"

Beetlejuice, who up to this point was worried for the underfed boy, couldn't help but burst out in laughter, "That's it babes! Show them a reason to be scared!"

Quite suddenly, after Harry's explosion of anger, the clouds started gathering and a rumble sounded from a distance. Dudley gulped in fear, "F- I mean…H-Harry. Y-you know you can't u-use it h-here!"

His friends traded glances, confused at the fact that 'Big D' was so frightened of a stick. One of them-Piers- spoke up, "What's wrong Big D? Show that Freak who's the boss!" The others shouted in agreement.

Lightning crackled in the sky and the winds picked up, chilling the air around them. Dudley almost wet his pants, thinking that this was the work of the wizard in front of him. Harry on the other hand, felt his hairs raise in warning.

Everyone else felt something was wrong so they did what any self-preserving human would do: they ran (despite being stupid beyond belief, they were cowards).

Harry felt the pressure in the air- as if gravity was dragging them down. It was as if… there was a tangible feeling of despair.

For once, Dudley and Harry locked eyes and immediately came to an agreement; they would both call a temporary truce until whatever this was, went away. Stepping away from each other, they turned and sprinted toward the safety of number 4 Privet Drive. Harry, who was leaner and used to physical activity was far more faster than his heavy set cousin, so more than once he had to grab Dudley's arm to urge him forward.

Panting, their steps made slight squishing sound as they ran through the moist, grassy field.

"I…*pant*…can't…*pantpant*…keep…" Dudley was suffering greatly, he was sweating profusely and couldn't seem to catch his breath.

Harry, too distracted by his terror didn't turn back to see the state his cousin was in and just called over his shoulder some weak encouragements, "C'mon Dudley! You can do it! Just…a little…further!"

At this point Dudley was dragging his feet, so it's no surprise when he went tumbling onto the wet ground. Harry, hearing the thud, turned around and tried helping his cousin up. Wide eyed and franticly trying to haul Dudley up, Harry gazed longingly at the tunnel up ahead not three meters away from them.

"C'mon! C'mon!" With strength he didn't know he had, Harry managed to yank Dudley up and drag him into the tunnel.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Two Dementors surrounded them. One blocked the entrance they had just gone through, and the other blocked the way out.

Both cousins leaned on each other, exhausted and terrified out of their wits. Dudley, being a muggle, couldn't see what they were running from, just that it was dangerous. He gazed wildly around, searching for the source of the icy hopelessness that gripped him, with no luck. At this moment, Harry sort of envied him for not being able to glimpse the horrifying, twisted, face of a Dementor.

As they drew closer, Harry had only one thing on his mind.

'WHERE THE HELL IS BEETLEJUICE?!'

Good question.

Where was Beetlejuice?

Well.

Currently, he was in the safety of his home in the Netherworld.

See, he sensed exactly what was coming. Dementors. If there was one thing he feared (besides sandworms and getting staked (thanks Lydia!)), was Dementors. Those soul sucking bastards where the bane of every ghosts afterlife. Unlike the living who where lucky enough to only half of their soul eaten, ghosts had it worse. Since they didn't have bodies, Dementors took advantage of that and ate them whole. Nothing is left. It's a second death. There was a reason they were exiled from the Netherworld. But now, they where here. In Surrey.

Fuck that.

Beetlejuice was out. He had too much to "live" for. 'Sorry kid,' he mentally apologized to Harry, 'but I'm not risking it'.

Sitting on his ripped and moldy recliner, he sighed in contentment. Reaching down to grab the newspaper he left there a few days ago, he began to read;

'Child Dead Due to Neglect!'

The bio-exorcist blinked, and shook his head. Nope. The headline was still there. A guilty feeling was slowly creeping up on him, 'Maybe I should go back,' viciously shaking his head to get rid of the thought, he scowled at the headline, "It ain't gonna work buck-o!"

He slammed the news paper down on the coffee table, and instead snatched a risqué magazine. Giggling perversely, he gazed at a picture of a busty demoness only to choke in shock when he saw the next page. It was a picture of a sickly looking child strongly resembling Harry and it was titled: 'Help A Child in Need Today! Call 1800-6990666!'

Screeching in horror, Beetlejuice burned the magazine, stomping on it for good measure. Seething he yelled towards the heavens, "What the fuck?! Who the shitty fuck is messing with me? Come at me bro! I'll show you not to mess with my motherfucking porn magazines! You…you BASTARDS!"

He received no response.

Fuming he swore like a sailor for ten minutes straight before calming down. Once he cooled down, Beetlejuice felt his guilt hit him full force. He struggled with what to do. He didn't want to risk being betrayed again. Never again. After dying at the hands of that gothy teen, he swore on his grave that he would follow his golden rule: Never trust breathers. But then he met Harry. And his obsession started all over again. Despite trying his best to keep the kid at a distance, he couldn't help but be drawn in by the natural warmth the brat excluded.

Jeez. He was getting a headache with all this back and forth he was doing. Could you blame him though?

Groaning in defeat he straightened up and gazed up at his cracking ceiling, "Okay, fine! I'll save him! Who fucking cares if I get sucked into the Abyss? 'Cuz fuck me right?!"

Snap.

Beetlejuice appeared in front of Harry in a poof of fabulous glitter, centimeters away from the Dementor's hood. Grinning dementedly he gazed right into the Dementors deformed face, "Boo."
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A/N: Yay! Another chapter! *Fist pumps* Really guys. This is a miracle. I usually don't update stories for a loooong while. But I managed it! Somehow. At this point, I'm not really sure where these characters are going personality wise. I mean, I threw in some Cartoon Beetlejuice in there (I think). Its-it's a mess. But! I hope you guys enjoy the chapter nonetheless!

(Should I do an Omake where Harry meets all three versions of Beetlejuice? Let me know if you guys would be interested in that.)