Of Wizards, Akuma, and Exorcists
Twenty: A Couple of People
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!
Two weeks had passed since Hermione's sudden suggestion of Harry teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. During the two weeks, it seemed as if Umbridge had forgotten the existence of the Exorcists inside the castle (they had done their best to stay low in profile), and nothing significant had happened overtime, either. It was a rather peaceful fornight for everyone.
It was now the end of September. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the library alone looking up potion ingredients for Snape when Hermione said suddenly, "I was wondering, whether you'd thought any more about Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry."
"Course I have," Harry replied darkly. "Can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us-"
"I meant the idea Ron and I had," Hermione said, and Ron sent her an alarmed look, "oh, all right, the idea I had- about you teaching us."
Harry hoped she wasn't waiting for an immediate answer. He wasn't sure if he was ready to admit that he had thought- a lot- about it over the past two weeks. There were times when the idea still sounded insane, as it had when Hermione had first proposed it to him, and there were times when he was subconsciously thinking about what spells had squeezed him through near-death encounters, sometimes even planning lessons in the back of his mind. And Allen Walker's words still rang clear in his ears.
Allen's gray eyes looking at him with the kind of serenity and pain he'd sometimes seen in Dumbledore's eyes, his voice forming the questions that had never occured to Harry, not even once. What do you want to do?What's your reason for doing something? Where do you want to end up?
Harry still didn't have his answers, and thus so he couldn't find a solid answer for Hermione- not yet. But he couldn't just not say anything, either.
"Well, yeah, I-I've thought about it a bit," he said, not meeting Hermione's eyes.
"And?"
"I dunno." Harry glanced at Ron, who suddenly seemed a lot more comfortable than he did at the beginning of the conversation.
"I thought it was a good idea from the start," he said, and Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"You did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?" Harry asked.
"Yes, Harry, but all the same, there's no point pretending that you're not good at Defense Against the Dark Arts because you are," Hermione said soothingly. "You were the only one last year who could throw off the Imperius Curse completely, you can produce a Patronus, you can do all sorts of stuff that full-grown wizards can't, Viktor always said-"
Ron's head snapped in her direction, and he smirked at her. "Yeah? What did Vicky say?"
"Ho ho," Hermione shot back coolly. "He said Harry knew how to do stuff even he didn't, and he was in the final year at Durmstrang."
"You're not still in contact with him, are you?"
"So what if I am?" Hermione retorted. "I can have a pen pal if I-"
"He didn't only want o be your pen pal."
Hermione shook her head and turned away from Ron, and, ignoring him, said to Harry, "Well, what do you think? Will you teach us?"
Harry poked at the page of the book he was reading, trying to buy time by looking thoughtful. He couldn't get of out of this predicament with spells, could he? "Just you and Ron, yeah?" he answered halfheartedly.
Whether it was just Harry's imagination or not, Hermione's face took on an anxious look once more. "Well," she said. "Well...now, don't fly off the handle again, Harry, please...But I really think you ought to teach anyone who wants to learn. I mean, we're talking about defending ourselves against V-Voldemort-"
At the mention of the name, Ron nearly fell out of his seat, causing several people to stare from other tables.
"Oh, don't be pathetic, Ron," Hermione snapped and turned back to Harry, "it doesn't seem fair if we don't offer the chance to other people."
"Yeah, but I doubt anyone except you two would want to be taught by me. I'm a nutter, remember?"
"Well, I think you might be surprised by how many people would be interested in hearing what you've got to say," Hermione said. "Look, you know the first weekend in October's a Hogsmeade weekend? How would it be if we tell anyone who'd interested to meet us in the village and we can talk it over?"
"Why do we have to do it outside school?" Ron asked.
"Because," Hermione said, returning to her diagram of a Chomping Cabbage. "I don't think Umbridge would be very happy if she found out what we were up to."
"Up to what, might I ask?" asked a voice, successfully imitating Umbridge and making the three students jump. Lavi, grinning widely and covered in dust, looked at them with curiosity. "Well?"
"They were asking me about the Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons they want me to teach," Harry answered. "And I agreed, I guess. We're having a meeting in Hogmeade at the beginning of October."
"Then could we come too?" Allen asked, emerging from behind a shelf with Lenalee, his arms laden with ancient looking books. "Dumbledore said it would be better if comrades stuck together, and it would help us gain more support as well as keep students safe."
"Oh, yes," Lenalee said, agreeing with the boy. "Could we be invited to your meeting, Hermione?"
Harry felt reassurance at the fact that the Exorcists were eager to join them in their secret group. If the people who were rumored to be apostles of God (as Hermione had said upon researching one of the books Lavi and Allen had brought from the library) were in agreement with them, then it was likely that they were doing something that benefited them against Voldemort.
The first weekend of October came quickly. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all marveling at how past time seemed to have passed as they sat down at the Gryffindor table for dinner on Friday night. As they ate through the delicious meal, Ron was insisting that tomorrow they ought to take Allen to Honeydukes, the sweets store that was popular amongst Hogwarts students. Allen, too, seemed eager to go and didn't notice the amused smiles Lenalee and Lavi exchanged behind him.
Harry barely heard if Hermione agreed, or disagreed, for his mind had, again, wandered over to the worries that had been plaguing his mind for the past few days: Sirius. His godfather hadn't tried to talk to them ever since he appeared in the Gryffindor common room's fire, and although Harry was sure he was skulking because of his and Hermione's violent reaction to the idea of Sirius meeting them at Hogsmeade, Harry still wondered if the man would take the chance and come to the village anyways. It made his stomach turn as he franctically thought over in his mind what they would do if the great black dog came bounding down the street at them, perhaps in clear sight of Draco Malfoy or, worse, Dolores Umbridge?
"What's wrong, Harry?" Allen asked curiously when Harry shook his head violently in an attempt to throw the anxiety out of his mind.
"Oh," Harry said, snapping out of his worries. Glancing around to make sure nobody was listening, he leaned into Allen's ear and whispered, "I'm just worried Sirius might be here."
"Well, you can't blame him for wanting to get out an about," Ron said, barging into the conversation. "I mean, he's been on the run for over two years, hasn't he, and I know that can't have been a laugh, but at least he was free, wasn't he? And now he's just shut up all the time with that lunatic elf."
Allen sent Ron a confused look as Hermione scowled darkly.
"Thr trouble is," she said, "until V-Voldemort- oh, for heaven's sake, Ron- comes out into the open, Sirius is going to have stay hidden, isn't he? I mean, the stupid Ministry isn't going to realize Sirius is innocent until they accept that Dumbledore's been telling the truth about him all along. And once the fools start catching real Death Eaters again it'll be obvious Sirius isn't one...I mean, he hasn't got the Mark, for one thing."
"I don't reckon he's stupid enough to turn up," Ron said as he swallowed a mouthful of mashed potatoes. "Dumbledore'd go mad if he did and Sirius listens to Dumbledore even if he doesn't like what he hears."
"But-" Harry began.
"Listen," Hermione said, turning her head this way and that, making sure, just as Harry had done, that nobody was eavesdropping, "Ron and I have been sounding out people who we thought might want to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts, and there are a couple who seem interested. We've told them to meet us in Hogsmeade."
"Right," Harry said, appreciating her effort to distract his mind, but still knowing miserably that she had failed to do so anyway.
"Don't worry, Harry," Lenalee told him soothingly from across the table. "You've got enough on your plate without Sirius too."
"Yeah," Lavi piped up, grinning with mirth. "Like that mountain of homework you still got to finish, although I assure you that sweet little Allen and Lenalee will aid you with that later." Said people sent him an appaled look, and Lavi grumbled deensively, "My grades, compared to my memory, might as well be dragon dung! And Harry, even though you're not spending every other week in good ol' Umbridge's office, your homework load isn't the best you see in the fifth year right now, and what about your Quidditch? You've got that too, don't you?"
Ron sniggered silently, causing Lenalee to turn to him with a knowing look. "Ron, you too. You've got prefect duties- aren't prefects supposed to be role models?"
"Yeah, prefects like my git of a brother," Ron retorted with a grimace. "Besides, that just makes one more than Harry, and I got one finished asignment over him!"
"You should do what Hermione's doing," Allen said as he stuffed a sausage into his mouth. "She's taking more classes than you two, is also a prefect like Ron, and has finished all of her homework-"
"Well, she's-" Ron said indignantly.
"-And she's been knitting more hats for the house elves, and trust me, I deeply regret the fact that I haven't been able to help her out," Allen said, raising his voice a notch. "She's a wonderful role model for everyone, I should say."
"I'm getting better too," Hermione said quietly, with a bit of a flush in her cheeks, whether it was because of the candlelight or not, Harry could not tell.
"Kanda, Krory, and Miranda would meet us in the entrance hall tomorrow morning after breakfast," Lenalee announced as she returned to her dinner. "It's best if we don't gather around each other too much under Umbridge's nose."
The next morning dawned brightly and windy, especially chilly, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione shivered slightly as they waited in the line of students headed for Hogsmeade. The Exorcists, being no longer students, waited outside wearing borrowed Muggle clothes, their uniforms being much too conspicuous. Allen and Lavi were standing side by side, talking to Lenalee as they tugged at the collars of their sweaters, Allen fidgeting with Timcampy who was hidden safely in his jacket pocket. Lenalee was wearing one of Hermione's coats, and was pulling a wool cap over Allen's equally conspicuous white hair. In the distance, Harry could see Kanda kicking at fallen leaves sullenly, apparently still upset about the fact that he had been forced by everyone to leave his trusted uniform behind and was glaring at the sleeve of his coat (from whom it had been borrowed, nobody knew). His anti-Akuma weapon, the sword Mugen, was hidden safely in a knapsack given by Hermione, who'd earlier cast an Undectable Extension Charm on it. Krory and Miranda, clad in old-fashioned clothes (possibly their own) were waiting a few feet behind Filch, looking nervous yet excited.
"Er-" Ron said, raising an eyebrow as Harry, last of the three, was being sniffed at by the caretaker. "Why was Filch sniffing you?"
"I suppose he was checking for the smell of Dungbombs," Harry chuckled, waving at the Exorcists. "I forgot to tell you..."
And so he launched into telling his friends about the encounter with Cho Chang and Filch at the Owlery during the beginning of the term, Allen chipping in with a few details here and there. While Lavi and Ron seemed bored and began to walk ahead of them with Lenalee, Hermione seemed highly intrigued by the tale.
"He said he was tipped off you were ordering Dungbombs? But who had tipped him off?" she asked.
"I dunno," Harry replied, and Allen shrugged. "Maybe Malfoy, he'd think it was a laugh."
"If it's Umbridge," Allen said, "then I would be forced to admit she's on the same level as my Master Cross."
"It's too bad we can't stop by Honeydukes though," Ron was saying to Lavi. "Allen would have fallen in love with it. It's got the best sweets, I tell you, the best!"
Hermione, ignoring Allens suggestion and Ron's rambling, looked thoughtful. "Malfoy?" she repeated in question. "Well...yes...maybe..."
She fell silent, and absentmindedly took the lead, and they all followed her to the outskirts of Hogsmeade until,
"Where are we going anyway?" Harry asked. "The Three Broomsticks?"
Hermione didn't answer.
"Uhm, Hermione?" Lenalee said as Lavi nudged her with his elbow.
"Oh!" the girl gasped slightly and flushed. "No," she said, "no, it's always packed and really noisy. I've told the others to meet us in the Hog's Head, that other pub, you know the one, it's not on the main road. I think it's a bit...you know...dodgy...but students don't normally go in there, so I don't think we'll be overheard."
When they passed Zonko's Joke Shop, Lavi was waved at from Fred and George Weasley as well as their friend Lee Jordan, and Harry saw Allen looking in wonder at the past office, from which owls flew in and out of at regular intervals. They turned onto a side street, which was far more deserted and less lively than the rest of the village, and saw a small inn at the top of it. There was a saign, battered and creaking in the wind, with a picture upon it: a wild boar's head on a white cloth with blood leaking onto the cloth in an almost grotesque fashion. Before entering, Harry, Ron, and Hermione hesitated outside the door, but the Exorcists, especially Kanda, walked in without blinking once at the ancient building or the intimidating sign, or the strange atmosphere surrounding the whole area. Harry guessed that they were used to places like these, wherever they came from, or maybe it just came with the job...
"Well, com on," Hermione said, not sounding any more confident than she looked, motioning inside as Lenalee and Allen looked back at them in question.
"From the look of your faces, I take it that the Three Broomsticks is the exact opposite of this place?" Lavi asked as the nine of them looked around the inn.
Indeed it was. Compared to the cheerful, welcoming warmness of the usual bar they went to, the Hog's Head was gloomy, dirty, and it looked doubtful that the dirty cups on the counter had been used in weeks, even months, or years. The room smelled strongly of wool, and a goat baahed from somewhere beyond a door, and the dirty windows barely let in any daylight, and the candles that rested on the tables were stubby and pretty much useless. The floor, at first glance appearing to be made of dirt, was covered in inch after inch of dust and filth. Stepping on it, Lavi grimaced, and even Allen seemed taken aback.
"Who's that old hag?" Lavi hissed in Ron's ear.
Harry followed Lavi's gaze and turned to Hermione. "I don't know about this, Hermione," he said. "Has it occured to you that Umbridge might be under that?" He gestured towards a witch sitting in a dark corner who was wearing a heavy black wig.
A flash of panic seized Hermione's eyes, but she looked at the witch with merly skepticism, not showing if she felt any anxiety. "Umbridge is shorter than that woman," she said after a moment, quietly. "And anyway, even if Umbridge does come in here there's nothing she can do to stop us, Harry, because I've double- and triple-checked the school rules. We're not out-of-bounds; I specifically asked Professor Flitwick whether students are allowed to come in the Hog's Head, and he said yes, but he advised me strongly to being out own glasses."
"Figures," Lenalee and Allen muttered in unison, their eyes glued to the cups sitting on the countertop as they fingered the glass, trying to see if they could actually touch the grime upon them.
"And I've looked up everything I can think of about study groups and homework groups and they're definetly allowed. I just don't think it's a good idea if we parade what we're doing," Hermione finished.
"No," Harry said flatly, "especially as it's not exactly a homework group you're planning, is it?"
"Oh," Allen suddenly said, barely audibly, as an old barman walked out of a back room and shuffled toward them slowly, his piercing blue eyes eerily familiar, yet unfamiliar as they squinted at them slowly. Allen made as if to say something, but one look from the old man silenced him, and as a look of confusement fell on the boy's face, the barman turned his skeptical glare upon the rest.
"What?" he grunted, not politely.
"Three butterbeers," Hermione said. "Please," she added.
"Six Sickles," the man growled at her, reaching under the table and pulling out three dusty bottles.
"I'll get them," Harry said, passing over the silver before Hermione could protest. He felt the barman's eyes skim over him, resting for a moment on his lightning shaped scar, before he grabbed the money and looked away.
"Some for us, too," Lavi said, his hands digging deep into his jeans pocket, and Allen heard the distinct sound of rattling coins. "Six bottles, please."
"Twelve Sickles," the barman repeated, slamming down yet another six bottles of butterbeer, and turned away when Lavi paid.
"Where did you get the money?" Allen asked, handing the bottles out to everyone and looking at Lavi with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, whoa," Lavi gasped with a grin. "Cool down there, Allen. I didn't steal it from anyone- no! I got it from Fred and George."
"-Prefect," Hermione growled to Ron, and the Exorcists joined them at the table in the farthest corner from the bar and the other customers.
"Oh, yeah..." Ron said gloomily.
"So who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asked.
"Just a couple of people," Hermione answered promptly. "I told them to be here about now and I'm sure they all know where it is- oh look, this might be them now-"
"Hi Neville," Lenalee greeted cheerully as Neville Longbottom entered the pub. He was just the begining of a whole line of people.
Following Neville came Dean Thomas and Lavendar Brown. After them, the steady stream of people came with amny familiar faces: Parvati Patil came in with her twin sister Padma; Cho Chang, who took one look at Harry and turned away with a red face, and one of her giggly friends, who did a double-take a Lenalee before glaring at Harry; Luna Lovegood, the dreamy eyed Ravenclaw Allen had spotted near Kanda at sometimes, one of the few people who got into Kand'a personal bubble without having their heads chopped off; three members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, the Chasers, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson; the tiny Creevey brothers, Colin, and Dennis, who were always watching Harry with awe; Ernie Macmillian, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, and an unrecognizable Hufflepuff girl; three Ravelclaws; Ginny followed closely by a memeber of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and bringing up the rear were Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan, their arms laden heavily with Zonko's products.
"A couple of people?" Harry was saying to Hermione as Allen and Lavi stared at the crowd with shock. "A couple of people?"
"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," Hermione replied cheerfully. "Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?"
"Hi," Fred Weasley said to the surprised face of the barman, who had probably never seen in bar so full. "Could we have...twenty-five butterbeers please?"
The barman glowered at Fred and George for a second, then, throwing down the rag he was using to clean up a filthy glass, he began to toss bottle after bottle onto the counter.
"Cheers," Fred called as he passed them out. "Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these..."
Harry was staring numbly at the crowd as the twenty-five students all sat down around him and his friends. Miranda was worse off than him as she trembled violently in her seat beside Krory, who was turning pink with every smile sent to him by the students (he was a rather popular aid for Professor Sprout, with his politeness and vast knowledge of plants). Cho Chang, looking at anywhere but Harry, was glancing every once in a while at Kanda, who rolled his eyes at Luna as she muttered to him about maybe yet another non-existent creature. Lavi and the Weasley twins were looking through the Zonko's bags, apparently unaware of the many people around them and probably forgetting about why, exactly, they were all gathered here. Lenalee and Allen were slumped back in their seats as Hermione and Ron looked torn between happiness, nervousness, and horror.
"Blimey," Harry heard Allen mutter.