Of Wizards, Akuma, and Exorcist
Thirty: Snake Bite
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 could a kiss be wet?" Allen and Lenalee demanded when Harry'd told them about it. He had walked numbly into the common room thirty minutes later, and he could still feel Cho's lips against his. Hermione must have been expecting it, because she gave him a knowing look, but Ron looked disgusted. Lavi had not appeared at all today and was nowhere in sight.
"Oh," he said, sounding slightly put off. "Are you that bad at kissing?"
"Dunno," Harry shrugged, then frowned. "Maybe I am."
"Of course you're not," Hermione said, and Allen glanced at the roll of parchment she was writing on. It was a letter, but he didn't know anyone who could write a letter that long...
"How do you know?" Ron demanded, glancing quickly from her to Harry in suspicion.
"Because Cho spends half her time crying these days," Hermione said absently. "She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place."
"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up," Ron said with a grin.
"Ron," Hermione sighed, "you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron said in an offended way. "What sort of person cried while someone's kissing them?"
"If she calls you a wart you are a wart," Lenalee said coldly, glaring at him darkly, "and I'm in agreement with her." Allen shivered behind her and didn't say anything.
"But yeah," Harry said, "who does?"
Hermione looked at both of her friends with a look of what might have been pitying. She said,"Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?"
"No," Harry and Ron said together.
Hermione sighed and laid aside her letter.
"Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad because of Cedric dying," she began. "Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."
Allen couldn't even begin to explain the stunned silence that followed Hermione's explanation. He could barely resist to start clapping at her narrative.
Ron said, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."
"Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," Hermione said and returned to her letter, picking up her quill again.
"She was the one who started it," Harry said. "I wouldn't've- she just sort of came at me- and the next thing she's crying all over me- I didn't know what to do-"
"Don't blame you, mate," Ron said.
"You just ahd to be nice to her," Allen said.
"You were, weren't you?" Hermione and Lenalee asked anxiously.
"Well," Harry muttered, his ears turning red, "I sort of- patted her on the back."
Hermione seemed to be having an internal battle on whether or not to roll her eyes. "
"Well, I suppose it could have been worse," she said. "Are you going to see her again?"
"I'll have to, won't I?" Harry said. "We've got D.A. meetings, ahven't we?"
"You know what she means," Lenalee said impatiently. Harry said nothing.
"Oh well," Hermione said. "You'll have plenty of opportunities to ask her..."
"What if he doesn't want to ask her?" Ron asked, looking away from Harry.
"Don't be silly," Hermione answered, "Harry's liked her for ages, haven't you?" Harry, once again, said nothing.
"Who're you writing the novel to anyway?" Allen and Ron asked, the latter trying to read the letter upside down. It was so long that the parchment had rolled onto the floor. Hermione snatched it up out of sight.
"Viktor," she said.
"Krum?"
"How many other Viktors do we know?"
Ron fell silent as well, looking disgruntled. They all sat quietly for twenty minutes, Ron finishing his Transfiguration homework with many snorts and grunts of impatience and crossings-out, Hermione scribbling steadily to the end of the parchment and sealing it carefully, Harry staring into the fire, the Exorcists flipping through their books. The fire died, and they were soon the last ones in the common room.
"Well, 'night," Hermione yawned and left for the girls' dormitories. Ron and Harry took their example and left for the boys' dormitories while Allen and Lenalee stayed behind. Lenalee waited until the boys' voices faded away and snapped her fingers. Her communication golem came fluttering out of a corner, followed by Timcampy, and the two Exorcists stood up.
"He's waiting," Allen said. Lenalee nodded, and they left the common room together.
"Good evening," Dumbledore greeted them in the headmaster's office. Just like every time they saw him, he was sitting behind his desk with Komui. Kanda, Krory, and Miranda had already gone, they guessed. "How are you?"
"Have you any reports from Lavi?" Lenalee asked at once, sitting down beside her brother. Allen followed suit.
"Earlier this afternoon. He is with Arthur Weasley right now-"
"Ron's father?" Allen said, then flushed. "Um...sorry."
"It is quite alright. Yes, he is the Weasleys' father. They are both fine, and Lavi should be back by daybreak tomorrow."
"So we wait?"
"Yes, we wait."
They didn't have to wait until dawn, although. Not many hours passed during which Dumbledore and the portraits along the wall were chatting when there was a sharp rap against the oak doors, and the portraits immediately began to feign sleep. The doors to the office opened, and when Allen and Lenalee twisted around in their seats, they saw McGonagall walk in followed by a pale Harry and an anxious looking Ron.
"Oh, it's you, Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore said pleasantly, "and...ah."
"What are you doing here?" Allen asked the boys, but neither of them answered. Lenalee and he exchanged glances with each other, stood up, and stood behind Komui as McGonagall approached the headmaster.
"Professor Dumbledore, Potter has had a...well, a nightmare," McGonagall said. "He says..."
"It wasn't a nightmare," Harry corrected.
McGonagall frowned at him. "Very well, then, Potter, you tell the headmaster about it."
"I...well, I was asleep..." Harry said, casting Dumbledore a look that was not returned. "But it wasn't an ordinary dream...it was real...I saw it happen..." He took a deep breath and said, "Ron's dad- Mr. Weasley- has been attacked by a giant snake."
"WHAT?" Allen and Lenalee exclaimed, and Komui's eyes widened behind his glasses. "How could he be- he's with- Lavi's with him!"
"Not necessarily," Komui muttered, and the Exorcists rounded on him. "They are in the same area, but even you guys know that partners may split up to search a place more efficiently."
"How did you see this?" Dumbledore asked Harry quietly, examining his long, interlocked fingers.
"Well...I don't know," Harry said, sounding rather angry. "Inside my head, I suppose-"
"You misunderstand me," Dumbledore said. "I mean...can you remember- er- where you were positioned as you watched this attack happen? Were you perhaps standing beside the victim, or else looking down on the scene from above?"
Harry stared at Dumbledore for a moment, as if in disbelief...
"I was the snake," he said at last. "I saw it all from the snake's point of view..."
"Is Arthur seriously injured?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes."
The headmaster stood up abruptly and said to a couple of portraits, "Everard? And you too, Dilys!" The wizard and witch opened their eyes immediately. "You were listening?"
"Naturally."
"The man has red hair and glasses. A young patch-eyed boy, another red haired one, should be with him. Everard, you will need to raise the alarm, make sure he is found by the right people-"
Both nodded and disappeared out of their frames.
"Mr. Walker, Miss Lee, I must request you stand beside Fawkes- hold onto his legs, I should add..." Dumbledore said. As the two Exorcists nodded and did as they were told, he continued, "Everard and Dilys were two of Hogwarts's most celebrated heads. Their renown is such that both have portraits ahnging in other important Wizarding institutions. As they are free to move between their own portraits they can tell us what may be happening elsewhere..."
"But Mr. Weasley could be anywhere!" Harry said.
"Please sit down, all three of you," Dumbldore said as if Harry had never spoken. "Everard and Dilys may not be back for several minutes...Professor McGonagall, if you could draw up extra chairs..."
Dumbledore approached Allen and Lenalee and the slumbering phoenix that they held lightly onto. He stroked the bird's head, and Fawkes awoke immediately.
"Both of you," Dumbledore whispered to them, "will be sent to the Burrow- that is the Weasley's home- and will accompany Molly Weasley wherever she goes. Fawkes will take you."
"Yes, sir."
"We will need," the headmaster said to Fawkes, "a warning. Hold on tight," he added.
Allen and Lenalee barely had a moment to react and grip the phoenix's legs tighter before a flash of fire not unlike Lavi's Hiban surrounded them, and they flet something tug them off the floor.
Then everything went dark, and Allen felt the floor tug away from them. And a flying, thrilling sensation and-
"OUCH!"
-they crashed down rather unceremoniously onto a wooden floor, but before they could nurse their offended knees, a red haired woman pulled them both to their feet and grabbed Allen's shoulders, started shaking him.
"Did Dumbledore send you? What happened- Arthur- mortal peril?- what happened to my husband?"
"Urk- please, don't shake," Allen choked out, and Ron's mother immediately let go.
"I-I'm sorry, but Arthur," she stuttered and started to sob. Alarmed, Allen put an arm around her trembling shoulders.
"We were sent by Professor Dumbledore to accompany you," Lenalee told her. "We are the Exorcists. Mrs. Weasley, I'm sure you'll soon be informed about your husband. He should be alright- one of our comrades is with him-"
"H-have you two ever Apparated?" Mrs. Weasley sniffed. "If we're going to St. Mungo's...I want to get there as soon as possible- and Apparition is the fastest-"
"We haven't, ma'am," Allen answered.
"Then we'll have to- to use Side-Along Apparition...I'll take care of preparations, don't worry...Thank you for coming," Mrs. Weasley said.
"There's nothing to thank us for," Allen said. "Let's go, Mrs. Weasley, I think that is the notice from the hospital."
"Alright," she nodded, and wiping her eyes, she scurried away to a door. Left behind in what he now realized was a kitchen, Allen turned to Lenalee.
"They will be fine, right?" Lenalee asked him.
"Bookman's the best doctor that I know," Allen replied, "and as his apprentice, I'm sure Lavi would have something up his sleeve..."
"They carried him to St. Mungo's now," Mrs. Weasley said, hurrying back to them. Grabbing a coat, she hastily put it on and grabbed both their arms. Here eyes were filled with tears again. "Let's hurry."
"How-?" Allen began to ask, but Mrs. Weasley tightened her hold around them and spun on the spot. Allen felt a sudden feeling of being crushed, as if all of the atmosphere around him had been taken away. He could barely breathe or move, and he felt something pressing against him. Something flashed in front of his eyes, but by the time he even started to try focusing on any of them, the three of them had arrived wherever they were headed for.
It was a street filled with people.
"This way," Mrs. Weasley said and led them to a store that had obviously never been used before. Two dolls dressed in clothes very unlike any of the passersby on the street stood in the display window, and Mrs. Weasley whispered to them. Then, she nodded and took their hands. She began to walk toward the window, and Allen wondered for a moment if they might walk straight into the grass, but instead, they went right through, and he was suddenly staring out at a vast crowd of people. Not all of them looked normal, either.
"This is St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries," Mrs. Weasley said. "Let's get in line...I have to ask how Arthur's doing..."
"Hey! Allen!" a voice called. The boy, hearing his name, looked around, telling Lenalee to follow the distraught woman to the long line that he'd at first thought was a crowd, and Allen waited for whoever called him to approach him, althought he thought he knew who it would be.
And just as he thought, the red haired head of Lavi jogged up to him through the sea of people, waving, his coat and face slightly bloodstained, a worried look on his face.
"Lavi," Allen said, grabbing the Bookman and pulling him to catch up with Lenalee and Mrs. Weasley. "How's Mr. Weasley?"
"Healers- those are the doctors here- are taking care of him. I did as much as I could, stopped the bleeding, but I'm sure it was poisoned- the fangs- how did you guys know about this so soon?"
"I'll explain later," Allen answered. "But is he alright?"
"He's hanging on."
"You mean he's-?"
"It's serious," Lavi said gravely.
Q: Whats Allen gonna get for his birthday anyways? His birthday is on Christmas day right? xD
A: Well, I really don't know where Allen's going to be on Christmas day. He's more likely to be at Grimmauld Place rather than off on a mission, so he'll get a gift, but I really have no clue what it would be. It's most likely going to be in the next chapter, so I'm willing to take suggestions in the reviews.
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