Of Wizards, Akuma, and Exorcists
Forty-three: Departure and a New Acquaintance
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!
Recap:
"Wait," Allen said, dropping the pamphlet in his hand and following after the twins. "What exactly are you planning to do?"
"Something Umbridge won't forget," Fred answered, glancing at the others to make sure none of them were listening, "because we're thinking of leaving after this one."
"That so-called pursuing of your dream that lies in an abyss outside of what education can give you?"Allen asked with a sigh, remembering what the twins had said at the beginning of the school year.
"You've remembered, did you?" George laughed. "Yep, that's what we're after. We wish we could've stayed with you a little longer, but we've decided already. We're going. So, you and the others will take care of each other, won't you? We'll leave Lavi to a bit of our joke products, so if we don't see you before you leave, you'll have some stuff to take home to your friends in the nineteenth century... that's where you came from, right?"
"Yes," Allen nodded.
"Well, we'd be going now, prepare for tomorrow," Fred and George said. "Take care, okay, Allen?"
"Good night," Allen waved as the boys' dormitory door closed shut behind the two tall, redheaded twins. "Good-bye."
"Good morning, Allen," Harry greeted the next morning, looking slightly stiff and nervous as he stood by the window beside Neville's bed.
Allen rubbed sleep out of his eyes and returned the greeting. He didn't try to start a conversation with Harry, but stared at the snoring lump on the bed next to his that was Lavi. Looking at the red hair sticking out from under the blanket, Allen was reminded strongly of the two Weasley clowns.
Although he very much would have loved to stay and stop the twins from doing anything stupid, Allen knew that trying to prevent Fred and George Weasley from pulling a prank on a hated teacher wouldn't be any easier than trying to stop Komui from killing any man that got too close to Lenalee (the latter was possible, but nobody liked having to do it due to the fact that they had to risk their lives as well). Feeling a bit guilty as he thought of how Mrs. Weasley would feel about her sons dropping out of school, he dressed into his now familiar borrowed clothes and stepped out of the dormitories, out the common room, down the halls and out the castle, to Hagrid's hut. The half-giant was just coming back from the Forbidden Forest, limping slightly and appearing to be more battered than ever.
Upon noticing Allen, Hagrid gave a gruff smile and welcomed him into his hut.
"Looking a bit down today, aren' you?" the man asked as he went to reach for some of his large mugs.
"A bit,"Allen replied, beating Hagrid to the task. He proceeded to boil some water while he told Hagrid, with a sharp look, to sit down. "I'm sure I still look a sight better than you, though."
"Well, Grawpy's still learning," Hagrid shrugged and winced. "He's gotten a lot calmer, though! A gentleman!"
"That's great, Hagrid," Allen said, "but shouldn't you be a bit more careful about your own well being? You might get seriously hurt one of these days."
"You worry about yourself as well," Hagrid said sternly, waving a heavily bandaged finger at the Exorcist. He leaned in closer and lowered his voice, although nobody was in the small hut other than he and Allen and his great dog Fang. "You guys are goin' to do it, aren' you? You're goin' to sneak into the Ministry."
"It depends, really," Allen answered. He handed Hagrid his tea, scratched Fang behind his ear, and straightened up. "I'd better get going now, Hagrid. I'll talk to you later."
"One thing, what's bothering you so much right now?"
Allen didn't reply immediately. He opened the door, smiled over his shoulder, and said, "See you," before leaving Hagrid alone in the warm hut. It was still early in the morning. There were several more hours until Fred and George's show, and he was still very worried.
- - - -
Five o'clock greeted Lavi and Kanda peacefully. At least, the first few moments of it did. The two youths were walking down the corridor Fred and George had mentioned last night (although Kanda was not aware and Lavi had already completely forgotted such information), one of them talking continuously about something while the other determinedly ignored his friend.
"And then, you see, that cute girl - Arrrggh!"
Kanda immediately jumped onto the windowsill beside him to avoid falling like Lavi. The floor beneath them had been transformed into a large swamp, and around the corner, Kanda noticed, disappeared the flying hems of escaping students. They were most likely the ones who set this trap, and without bothering to stop and help Lavi, Kanda immediately leaped over the swamp and after the two troublemakers.
"Ah - Yu... wait!" Lavi called after him helplessly.
Kanda chased the fleeing students all the way down to the entrance hall, but before he could catch them, he was knocked over by an oncoming crowd behind him. Students and teachers alike rushed past him down the stairs (he thought he glimpsed Lavi being pushed downstairs by the tide at one point) after the people who had made the swamp: everyone knew who they were, for there weren't anyone else who was daring enough to get on Dolores Umbridge's nerves something this nasty.
After a few minutes, a crowd in the shape of a ring had formed in the entrance hall, and in the middle of it stood Fred and George Weasley, who looked both proud and ashamed (Kanda thought he knew that was a fake grimace on their faces). Umbridge was beaming at them widely, like a toad who had just spotted and caught an especially delicious fly, and she said, just as Harry Potter rushed past Kanda and stopped several feet away from the woman,
"So! So... you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"
Fred and George nodded. "Pretty amusing, yeah," one of them answered. Kanda still hadn't gotten the hang of telling them apart.
"I've got the form, Headmistress," said a wheezing Filch as he elbowed his way toward Umbridge. He held up several pieces of parchment and seemed to be bursting with glee. Kanda didn't take it as anything good. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting... Oh, let me do it now..."
"Very good, Argus," Umbridge said approvingly. "You two are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school," she said, addressing the twins.
"You know what?" one twin asked. "I don't think we are. George," he said, turning to the other twin, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."
The brother, George Weasley, voiced his agreement.
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" Fred Weasley asked.
"Definitely."
Just as the twins raised their wands and Summoned their broomsticks, which had been locked up and chained in Umbridge's office ever since they and Harry were banned from Quidditch many months ago, Lenalee materialized into the air beside Kanda. Out of breath and panting heavily, she gasped, "What are those two doing?"
"Leaving, what else?" Kanda replied, watching with amusemnt as Fred and George mounted their broomsticks grinned devilishly at Umbridge.
"We won't be seeing you," a twin said (Kanda lost sight of who was who once again).
"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," the other added."If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstair, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley - Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, our new premises!"
"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear their going to use our products to get rid of this old bat."
"STOP THEM!" Umbrige shrieked, but with a laugh, Fred and George swirved into the air overhead the goggling crowd, out of reach.
"But-" Lenalee said. "What about their education?"
"Quit acting like that Granger girl and let them do whatever they want," Kanda told her with a sigh. "It's not like they can stay here after this, anyway. Besides, that gets one-half of daily annoyance off my shoulders. Why would I care?"
But Lenalee wasn't listening: "Where's Lavi and Allen?"
"No clue."
"Krory and Miranda?"
"Grimmauld Place, they'll be back tomorrow."
"Oh, jeez..."
A great clamor from the entrance hall made both Exorcists pause in their conversation. One of the twins' broomsticks was trailing a long chain, which was scratching against the stone floor.
"Give her hell from us, Peeves," one said to the poltergeist who was floating at level with them over the crowd.
And, as Kanda and Lenalee watched, the ghost swept off his hat and saluted to the twins, who, as if chased by a tidal wave of hearty applause and cheering, gave one fianl grin at the students and sped out of Hogwarts's front doors and into the world outside, the dangling chain just barely missing the top of a white haired head.
- - - -
"You're going to tell them?" Lavi and Allen exclaimed on the day of the next Quidditch match. They were sitting across the table from Hagrid in the man's hut, and they, supporting borrowed clothes in the colors of red and gold, had merely dropped by to say their hello's before they went to the field to cheer for Ron and his team.
Hagrid, Allen noted, looked much worse than he had on the day of the Weasley twins' departure, what with around five more bruises and ten more cuts marring his face. He had a new layer of bandages on his hand, which also added to the hostility of his appearance. His unordinary size didn't help much, either.
"God, Hagrid, if he can do that much damage to you, Harry and the other two will snap like twigs!" Lavi said, snapping his fingers in demonstration. "Like this!"
"You say it like a bad thing, you do," Hagrid grunted. "Grawpy's still learnin', he can' help it... It's - it's in his nature..."
"Nature to beat up his own kind?" Allen asked sarcastically.
"He's a giant!" Hagrid retorted.
"Oh, fine," Lavi sighed. "Allen, I guess we'll have to skip the match today.. Leave Lenalee and the others to do the cheering. We'll be in the forest, Hagrid. 'Kay?"
"I was looking forward to the game though," Allen muttered as he and his friend stepped into the Forbidden Forest together. He wondered why in the world he had chosen to drop in by Hagrid today... if only he and Lavi had decided to go straight to field. He loved helping out their giant friend, but going near Hagrid's younger brother was another story. God knew the number of times he and Lavi brushed death while trying to tame that supposedly young giant...
"Grawp?" Lavi called unenthusiastically. "Grawpy? Can you find us? It's us, Lavi and Allen!"
"He's probably asleep," Allen whispered. "Let's go."
And the two walked on, on and on, until the came across a mound in the forest floor. The mound moved up and down in a rhythmic matter, as if it was breathing. In fact, it was breathing - snoring, to be exact - and as the two Exorcists approached, it gave another roaring snort and shifted on its side. Its movements were restricted due to the ropes tying it to the two trees nearby, and Allen and Lavi were glad of it.
"Now what?" Lavi asked.
"Now we wait until Hagrid arrived with Harry and Hermione," Allen said. "Although I wonder why he's telling them. Sure he's in danger of being kicked out of the school, but, surely, the two of us are more free to move around than those two?"
"If it means less time nearly getting killed, I'm not complaining." Lavi grunted and dropped down on a fallen tree. Grawp had uprooted that one during one of their previous visits. "Hallelujah."
Allen sighed and turned back to look at the sleeping giant.
Hello everyone--
Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!
I don't know how to start apologizing about not updating for so long. I lost part of this chapter when my computer crashed the other day, so I desperately typed this one up on my mother's computer (whose keyboard is the hardest thing to use after my laptop... so many typos) It may also take me a while until I post the next chapter, but I will try to work on it as much as I can during this winter break.