Of Wizards, Akuma, and Exorcists

Seven: Allies In War

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!
"Call."

Draco Malfoy stared at the cards Allen Walker placed on the tile floor. Ginny Weasley, sitting next to the white haired boy, gaped with her mouth wide open. The two of them whispered in horror, "A royal flush..."

How is this possible? Malfoy thought in panic. I was dealing him bad cards, and he still wins!

Allen, meanwhile, smiled innocently at him. Malfoy, being the sore loser he was, grabbed the cards and began shuffling. "One more game," he insisted.

"Fine with me," Allen shrugged.

"I won't lose this time," Malfoy said stubbornly.

It was thirty minutes after the above conversation when Allen and Ginny walked into the Gryffindor common room, laughing and looking quite pleased. Ron, seeing his sister with another boy, jumped up from where he was doing homework with Hermione and Harry. "Ginny, what are you doing?" he asked, eyeing Allen with suspicion and what Allen hope wasn't anger and disgust.

"I was showing Allen the way back from the Great Hall," Ginny answered, still smiling happily and laughing slightly.

"And how does that result in you two walking in, laughing your heads off and getting so...so..." Ron said, his voice trailing off as he searched for a word.

Allen scratched his head. "We were playing Poker with that boy, Malfoy," he said, "because he wasn't saying the most pleasant things about you and Ginny."

From the table where he was, Harry scoffed. "Really? That's a first," he said sarcastically. "When hasn't Malfoy said something that wasn't pleasant?"

"Judging from the way he acted, never," Allen replied calmly. "He owed Ginny an apology and I wanted to hit him badly, so gambled that. If I won, he apologizes and I hit him; if he won, he does as he wishes and I don't do anything."

Ron looked affronted. "You mean you risked the chance of allowing Malfoy to harrass my sister freely? You're a monster!" he yelled.

"Hey, Ron, Allen's not like that," Lavi said, appearing beside the red headed boy suddenly. "Allen wouldn't gamble anything like that if he wasn't confident he'd win, and trust me, Allen could never lose."

Lenalee peered over Lavi's shoulder at Ron and explained, "Before we met him, he used to travel with a friend"- Allen rolled his eyes- "of his, and that person was horrible with handling money. To pay back all their debts, Allen had to work or gamble, and over the years he became impossible to defeat."

Ron still looked doubtful. "What happened? The game, I mean..." he said to his sister.

"If Allen lost, we wouldn't be laughing," Ginny answered. "He was so strong, Ron! Malfoy and he played ten games and he won all of them!"

"Really?"

"Yes, and he's the unluckiest boy in our group," Lavi said, wrapping his arm around Allen's shoulder. "But he's skilled. He's a pro at cheating!"

Ginny paused for a moment, and then burst into laughter once more. "Oh my God, no matter you were so good," she said cheerfully. "Thanks for winning though, Allen. It felt so refreshing watching Malfoy fly all the way down the hall."

Lenalee glanced at Allen in question, and the boy said, "I activated my Innocence, but I made sure to hit Malfoy before he saw anything, so it's okay. Timcampy was bothering with the hood on his robe. And plus, it was Ginny who was with me. Her whole family's in with teh Order of the Phoenix. Not that she saw anything, either, anyways."

"Allen, you risk so much all alone," Lenalee sighed.

The boy laughed nervously. "Well, I got to run, Lenalee. I promised Umbridge I'd go get my homework, and it's better if I stay on her good side!"

"Oh, don't worry Allen," replied the Chinese Exorcist. "I told her I'd give her the homework assignment when I see you, so there's no need to go see her. But it was so wild in her class today. Harry's been in a glum mood ever since."

Allen raised his eyebrow and looked over at the grumbling boy. Harry was hunched over his roll of parchent with a quill in hand, and he shook his head every time Hermione tried to talk to him. He brushed his black bangs out of his eyes and said, "It's alright, Hermione, I'll do it myself."

Hermione nodded reluctantly and went back to writing her report. Allen didn't know what class she was doing that for, whether it was Snape's or Binns', but at the moment his eyes were glued to Harry's forehead, where he saw...

"Hey, Harry," Allen said, prying himself out from under Lav's arm. He approached the table (out of the corner of is eye he saw Hermione fidget) and peered at Harry. "What's that?"

Harry put down his quill, looking quite glad to have an excuse to get away from it. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

Allen scratched his head. "Um, excuse me," he said, and he reached over to lift Harry's bangs with his 'normal' right hand, shoving his left hand into his coat lest Hermione might see it (he didn't want people to ask too many questions about its red color and scaliness). "This scar, what happened? It's a rather...strange shape, isn't it?"

Harry, Hermione, and Ron's eyes were all on Allen, their faces doubting, confused, and surprised. Harry, being the first to recover from the silence, asked, "You don't know?"

"I don't really spy on people, you see," Allen replied, taking away his hand, and the shock of jet black hair fell back to cover the lightning shaped scar.

"But," Ron squeaked, "everyone knows why Harry has his scar!"

Lenalee and Lavi walked up to the group and looked at Harry. "We don't," Lavi said. "We don't know anything about Harry Potter other than that he's in Gryffindor-"

"-and whatever else Professor Dumbledore told us," Lenalee finished.

Harry glanced from Exorcists to Exorcist, as if to judge whether or not they were telling the truth. In the end, he sighed and said, "Follow me, I don't want to talk about in the common room because people will start talking again."

"Talk?" Allen repeated.

Ginny skipped over and grabbed her brother's sleeve. "Ron, could I come with you?"

"What? Ginny-"

Lenalee put her hands on the younger girl's shoulders. "Please let her come with us," she pleaded, "and Lavi, could you go get the twins?"

Harry looked apprehensive. "Why do you want them to come as well?" he asked.

"Because," Allen answered, "judging from the way things went for us this afternoon when I left Umbridge's, it's going to be hard getting in and our of here without causing suspicion if we don't have any support from Hogwarts."

"Why would you have to do anything 'cept sit in class all day? You're students like us," Ron said.

"We'll explain that when we get to wherever Harry wants us to go," Lavi stated, leading Fred and George. "So, Captain, where to?"

"The dormitory," the boy pointed to the closed door. "Somehow we'll get everyone out of here."

"Easy thing to do," Fred winked, and George ran over tothe door. Opening it, the twins yelled, "We're going to put Dungbombs in there, so it you don't want to be smelly tomorrow morning you might as well get out of there!"

Several boys dashed out of the room, and by the time Harry and the others slipped in, the dormitory was empty. The twins were beaming with pride at their masterpiece: the empty room, and Lavi grinned back at them as the all sat down on the floor between Lavi's and Allen's beds. "Nobody'll here us here," Ron said, "we're in the very back of the room."

"Nice and comfy," Lavi sighed, leaning back against his bed. Beside him, Lenalee sat with her arms around her knees, looking around.

Allen looked at Harry and went straight to the point, "Sooner or later people will notice that it doesn't smell in here, so we should hurry. Harry, could you explain why you have that scar?"

Harry played with his hair for a moment. He looked up at the three Exorcists and asked, "Do you three know Voldemort?"

While Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee were completely unafected by the name, the others flinched and gasped. Lenalee, ignoring the awkwardness of the moment, nodded. "Dumbledore told us about him."

"Good," Harry muttered. "I wasn't looking forward to explaining his life. Well Voldemort- get over it you lot, it's just a name! Voldemort, he gave me this scar when I was a year old. He tried to kill me after he killed my parents," he said. "It's a curse, basically, but it's more of like a reminder of the curse. It stings a lot now, because Voldemort is back, despite what Umbridge and the otehrs think. I saw him!"

"We don't doubt you," Allen assured. "If Voldemort wasn't back, we wouldn't be here because our job here is to defeat Voldemort."

"Yes," Lavi nodded, "him and our great enemy, the Millennium Earl."

"Who is that?" Fred and George asked. "Is he as bad as You-Know-Who?"

"And why are you here? You said your job was to defeat You-Know-Who," Hermione added, "but why you? We've got our own forces here."

"And Voldemort has new forces, Akuma," Lenalee answered. "Akuma are made by the Millennium Earl, its materials being human flesh and the soul of a deceased. Great sadness triggers the Dark Matter, the hard substance that makes up the hard surface of the Akuma's boy in its true form. Only we can destroy these Akuma."

"Why not us?" Ginny asked, sounding young and frightened.

Allen, who was sitting next to Ginny, patted her head with a smile. "Let me explain," he said, and so he and the Exorcists told their story. They told the Hogwarts students of the beginning of everything: of the discovery of the Cube and its message of the Earl's plan to destroy the world; of the Black Order and the Noahs, the family who's inherited the genes of Noah; of the Innocence and the Exorcists; of their mission and of the possible alliance between the two evils. When they were finished, Allen and his friends settled to waiting until the shocked expressions on the wizards and witches' faces disappeared. It would take a while for everything to sink in, they'd concluded in their minds.

Harry was staring at Allen's face. The white haired boy sitting across from him looked back at him calmly through warm, gray eyes. It was hard to think that this boy sitting in front of him, who was the same age as him, was destined from the day he was born to fight and live as God's hand on Earth, destined to live a life of death and destruction, and might die from his battles at any time. Sure, Harry might get killed by Voldemort and the Death Eaters, but he at least knew who his enemies were; for Allen, anyone could be his enemy, even the Exorcists with whom he came to Hogwarts.

"You all must be very frightened every day," Hermione whispered. Allen, Lenalee, and Lavi just looked at her with the faintest shadow of sad smiles tugging at their lips. "Aren't you all...saddened? Every time you destroy an Akuma..?"

"The souls of an Akuma are crying," Allen replied quietly, closing his eyes.

"What?" Ron said. "How do you know?"

"Allen's the only one who can tell an Akuma from a human," Lavi explained. "His left eye...it can see the soul of an Akuma."

Harry gulped. "Is it a curse?" he asked.

Allen opened one eye and peered at him. After a moment of silence, he said, "Yes. I got cursed by my father."

The silence that followed Allen's words was eerie. Lenalee and Lavi had known how their friend had gotten cursed, but hearing it again was still upsetting, and to Harry and his friends, it was impossible to imagine a father cursing his own son. Ginny touched Allen's arm and said, "Why?"

The boy answered, "Because I turned him into an Akuma."

Ron was seething. "And that give him the right to curse you?" he demanded, completely oblivious to the space -or lack of it- between Allen and his younger sister, not that that would bring any harm at all. "That is not fair!"

"This curse has helped me more than damned me," Allen replied. "I don't know why exactly Mana cursed me, but I've adapted."

"But it must be hard on you," Ginny said.

Lavi muttered. "Allen's eye affected mine once and I saw an Akuma's soul. I couldn't eat for three weeks! He's lived with that eye for- what? Three years?"

"It's the reason I exist, really, destroying Akuma and bringing salvation to lost souls," Allen said. "Akuma are pitiful things. I have to destroy them, but to do so, I must get rid of all the sadness in the world. But a world without sadness is but a dream, so I must defeat the Earl, the manufaturer of Akuma."

"Unfortunately enough," Lenalee sighed, "the Earl decided that your world, one hundred years ahead of ours, was the easiest place to attack because you guys don't have any Exorcism going on, and the Black Order doesn't exist here either."

"And from what we heard about Harry's parents and his scar, your villian Voldemort isn't the nicest guy in the world, is he?" Lavi asked.

"He's killed a lot of people," Hermione affirmed. "Tens of people, maybe even hundreds..."

"He's after Harry's life right now," George said, "but he can't attack right now because Harry's with Dumbledore, the only wizard You-Know-Who's ever feared. And Dumbledore's part of the Order of the Phoenix, the order that's fighting against You-Know-Who..."

"The Order Dumbledore told us to depend on," Allen said to Lavi, who nodded. The Exorcists all exchanged looks of question with each other and stood up, Lenalee standing in the center. Ginny, looking surprised, shuffled on her knees towards Harry.

"Um," Fred said awkwardly, "what're you all doing?"

Lenalee smiled and held out her hand. "I am Lenalee Lee, assistant Head Officer of the Black Order Headquarters. Our chief, Head Officer Komui Lee and Exorcists, Allen Walker, Yu Kanda, Miranda Lotto, Arystar Krory, Lavi, and I, would like to request your alliance to fight this war for the world against the Millennium Earl and Lord Voldemort," she said, her voice business like, yet friendly. She and the two Exorcists behind her stood straight and looked at Harry with expectation. "Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Ginny, Fred, and George Weasley, will you accept our request?"

An alliance. A war. Harry'd known how important it was to defeat Voldemort, but hearing those words and the seriousness in the girl's voice, Harry realized for the first time how much defeating Voldemort meant, not only to him, but to the world; how much defeating the Millennium Earl meant to the Exorcists. He shook his head to clear it and saw that allof his friends were looking at him. There was determination in their eyes as they nodded. Another jolt of realization hit Harry: now that the ancient evil, Millunnium Earl, was here and possibly on Voldemort's side, there was no way the Order of the Phoenix and he alone could defeat the murderer of countless wizards and witches; they needed the help of the Exorcists. He nodded back and stood up, facing Lenalee and her friends. He took the girl's hand. "I accept, no, we accept your request, Lenalee. I hope we can defeat both our enemies hand in hand," he said.

Author's Note:

I had a question for Chapter 6, so here's my answer-

Q: I thought malfoy didn't gamble?

A: To tell the truth I don't think he does either. He just didn't like Allen talking to him the way he did, especially since Allen was defending Ginny, who Malfoy thought as a bloodtraiting scum.