Another chapter! Yeah! Here is Chapter 18--Gone!
Anyway! This chapter's alittle longer than the others, and I wanted it to be to thank everyone who reads this! I have reached the 10k hit mark, and am very happy. :)
So, here is chapter 18. I've decided...no more full on Akuma conversations! So, its a secret...sh...Read and Review!
"So, they found somewhere to practice?" said Lavi, sitting on the round table where they had their meetings.
Only Allen and Lenalee were there. They all had their wands, and Allen was using it to repair pieces of paper. Lenalee watched him tear one in half, then say repairo and the paper would mend…or that's what it was supposed to do.
"Yes, that's what Hermione said," Lenalee said, running her hand down her hazel colored wand.
"Where? When?" asked Allen, pausing in his attempts after the paper exploded in his face.
"At eight o'clock in the seventh floor corridor. Apparently, it's opposite a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy—"
"But I've been up there!" interrupted Lavi, "There's nothing opposite that picture of that bloke getting clubbed by trolls."
"Well, that's where we're meeting."
Allen attempted yet again to repair the paper. But instead of exploding, which had been the outcome of the other attempts, it flew together again.
"I got it!" he said excitedly, holding up a piece of paper.
Lavi and Lenalee turned, looking at the paper. "Uh, Allen, its missing a part."
"What? Oh…" he sighed, letting the paper flutter out of his hands. There was a jagged circle hole in the center, where there was no paper at all.
"You think we should tell another exorcist about this?" asked Lenalee, picking up the paper.
The boys were silent for a moment. "But…I don't want'a end up spotty! Anyway, like who?" said Lavi.
"Kanda maybe? He has a wand," Lenalee said. She set the paper down again.
"I haven't even seen Kanda today," muttered Lavi. For some reason, Lenalee stayed silent. She didn't know why she wasn't telling her fellow exorcists why Kanda wasn't even in the castle. That he was probably a whole country away by now and he couldn't help is something happened. But something stopped her. She didn't know what.
"Me neither…wonder where he is," said Allen, dropping his wand. Small gold sparks jumped from the tip. "Ah!"
"Allen…" Lenalee murmured.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It was eight o'clock. The three exorcists had managed to sneak away without drawing attention to themselves. Which was pretty easy. Komui had fallen asleep in a pile of paperwork. Miranda was there as well, but staring off into space. Krory was down at the greenhouses and Kanda was yet to be found.
They walked to the seventh floor corridor and walked over to where the tapestry was hanging.
"But…there was an empty wall here before…" whispered Lavi, who had been far and wide around the castle with Fred and George.
But, there was no empty wall there now. A wooden door stood there now. Taking a deep breath, Allen knocked lightly, then opened the door.
"Whoa!" both Allen and Lavi said as they entered. They had stopped in the doorway.
"Go in!" said Lenalee, pushing on their backs. Taking a few steps forward, they walked fully into the room and stared around.
"You made it! That's great!" someone said, coming over to them. It was Harry. Allen and Lenalee smiled. Lavi was staring at the books on the walls, his eye moving to where Hermione was already reading.
He made a slight jerking movement, then stopped himself. "I'll wait," he muttered. Lenalee giggled.
They waited a few more minutes, and more people started to come in. Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati and Dean arrived first. Dean's reaction was the same as Allen's or Lavi's.
"Whoa," said Dean, staring around. "What is this place?"
Harry started to explain, the exorcists listening intently, but then others had appeared, and he had to start over. He decided to wait until everyone was there. At eight, everyone was there. All the Hogwarts students were sitting on the cushions, and the three exorcists were standing in the back.
Harry locked the door, then moved back to the front of the room. Everyone fell silent, staring at him.
"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've—er—obviously found it okay—"
"It's fantastic!" said Cho. Allen grinned knowingly. Lavi and Lenalee glanced at him with questioning looks, but he just shook his head.
"It's bizarre," said Fred. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember George? But it was just a broom cupboard then…"
"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from somewhere near the exorcists. He pointed at some odd-looking instruments on tables.
"Dark Detectors," replied Harry. He walked over to them, nearing the exorcists, who were standing near them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled…"
Allen stared at them. They looked odd. He wondered if it worked on Akuma, since his eye was…putting up a fight, to put it blandly.
"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and—er—" He paused when Hermione raised her hand. "What, Hermione?"
"I think we ought to elect a leader," she said.
"Harry's leader," said Cho. Again, Allen's face lit with a slight smile, as if he knew something. Then he gasped slightly.
"Allen, what's wrong?" asked Lenalee, who was standing beside him. Lavi peered at him as well.
"It's…nothing." But it wasn't just nothing. His head was pounding. And it had come so suddenly that if he hadn't been leaning against a wall, he would have staggered. He closed his eyes, yet he was aware that both Lavi and Lenalee were watching him.
The pain slowly receded, and he opened his eyes again. "It's ok, I'm fine, really," he said reassuringly.
"It happened again, didn't it?" asked Lenalee in a whisper. They had lost track of what was happening in the rest of the room, but cut off their conversation with a look from Allen.
"The Defense Association?" said Cho. The exorcists looked at each other. What were they talking about? "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"
"Names," muttered Lavi. Allen and Lenalee nodded, paying more attention to what the conversation.
"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny, Ron's sister. "Only lets make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst rear, isn't it?"
Lavi grinned widely, snickering slightly. Others laughed as well, which was taken as agreement.
"All in favor of the D.A.?" said Hermione. Most students raised their hands, as well as the exorcists. "That's a majority—motion passed!"
She pinned the list with all their names and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY at the top.
"Right," said Harry, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful—"
The exorcists looked at each other excitedly. Magic! That's what they wanted to learn, and this was one of the first times that they were going to learn.
"Oh please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"
"I've used it against him," said Harry. The three exorcists could feel the air buzzing. They didn't know why this student was so defensive. "It saved my life last June."
Silence followed that statement.
"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," said Harry.
Allen watched Zacharias carefully, but he didn't move. No one else did either.
"Okay," said Harry, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."
At once, people divided into pairs. The exorcists pushed their way through the pairs over to where Harry was standing with Neville.
"Harry!" said Lenalee as they neared him.
"Hello!" said Harry. He turned away for a second, "wait a second. One, two, three—"
There were shouts of Expelliarmus and wands flew in every direction.
"Ok, so right now, we're doing the Disarming Charm, like I said before," explained Harry, knowing why they had come over. "It'll make your opponents wand fly from their hand."
"As we've seen," said Lavi, looking around.
"The charm is Expelliarmus. Try it out!" he said, turning his attention back to Neville.
"Um, ok," said Allen, holding his wand nervously. "Here goes!"
But Lavi had already said the charm. "Expelliarmus!" A shock went through Allen, his wand flying from his hand.
"No!" he called out, watching his wand fly in an ark and land on a shelf.
"Great job Lavi!" said Lenalee, giggling.
"That was great! Accio Wand!" called Harry, retrieving the wand from the shelf.
Lavi laughed as Harry handed Allen's wand back to him. Allen looked putout.
"I'll get you back, don't worry!" Allen said, grinning. Lavi grinned back. Then they started laughing.
There was a small whisper of Expelliarmus and Lavi's wand flew from his hand. He made a wild grab for it, tripped and ended up on the ground.
"Haha…Lavi, you have to be alert!" teased Lenalee, giggling as she grabbed his wand. Allen laughed from behind him.
"No fair!" he said from the ground, looking up at her. Allen helped him up and she handed the light colored wand back.
"Good job. Allen, try, before one of them disarms you again," said Harry, grinning.
"Expelliarmus!" said Allen, pointing his wand at Lavi, who had just got to his feet.
"Ah!"
Again, his wand flew through the air.
"You guys are naturals," he said, then turned to Neville. "Could you practice with Ron and Hermione? I'm gonna walk around."
He left them to walk around the room, correcting and instructing. He came to the exorcists a couple of times because Lavi and Allen had both tried to disarm each other simultaneously and had caused a great bang to echo through the room.
A whistle sounded and everyone looked around.
"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"
"Sooner!" said Dean Thomas and Lavi at the same time. Many other people agreed too.
But Angelina said quickly, "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"
"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "and we can decide on additional meetings then…Come on, we'd better get going…"
The exorcists waited until the rest of the students were gone and it was only Harry, Hermione, Ron and themselves.
"That was really, really good Harry," said Hermione.
Lenalee nodded, smiling.
"Yeah, it was!" said Ron as they left the room. Allen and Lavi agreed. "Did you see me disarm Hermione, Harry?"
"I was watching you guys, you only got her once," commented Allen, grinning.
"I did not get her only once, I got her at least three times—"
"Are you counting that time when you tripped, Ron, 'cause I don't think that's the same thing as disarming," Lavi laughed. Ron rounded on Lavi, but Hermione had agreed with him and now was bickering.
"What is it Allen?" asked Lenalee when she noticed he was no longer walking beside her. She looked back, to see him staring down the corridor in the opposite direction.
"I thought…I saw someone. Maybe it was just a shadow," he murmured as he caught up with her.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Miranda paused in her reading to glance over at Komui. He had woken up, finally, and was reading some papers that the Order had sent.
"Komui…what's happening?" she asked, because his brow was furrowed.
He looked over at her. "Just more attacks on our exorcists."
"I'm not having m-much luck," she stifled a yawn. "How can we find an Innocence in someplace so big and keep the Akuma away?"
Komui sighed, picking up another piece of paper. "I don't know…Miranda, what happened in your meeting?"
Miranda was silent for a second then answered, "I don't think A-Allen's eye is working."
"What?"
"It's not…not detecting the Akuma. That's what we think. And Lavi and Kanda had a fight."
"What kind of fight? They always are fighting…or Kanda is fighting, Lavi's just being annoying…why's this different?" he asked, looking up from the paper.
"T-this was an actual fight. T-they started yelling and everything. It was scary. Allen broke it up, but they could…could have h-hurt each other," she said, closing the book.
Komui closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, they were hard. "The Akuma are planning something. You have to stay together, don't get separated. We have to find the Innocence."
Miranda nodded. "Yeah, your right."
He made a small noise and she looked at him. "It's from Kanda," was his answer.
"Where is he? Haven't seen him in a day or something," she said.
"A mission. He reached Noise and will be gone for around two weeks," he read. "That's all he said."
"Oh…should I tell the others?" she asked. She put the books on the table and stood up.
"Going to bed? Yes, you can tell them, just so they don't worry," Komui smiled as she.
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to bed. Goodnight," she said, smiling, and exited the room. Komui turned back to the paper Kanda had sent.
This is Kanda. I've met up with Noise. We've already met some Akuma, and one mentioned the school. Don't know what it was about. Be back in two weeks, I'll send more information if I get any.
Komui sighed, placing his paper onto the table. "What did they say?" he muttered to himself, closing his folder.
- - - - - - - -
Two weeks had passed. Kanda was still not back, but that was expected. The exorcists had the suspicion that he was delaying his return.
The D.A. meetings had progressed. They now knew a number of spells. Lavi used every chance he got to use his wand. He had jinxed Allen at least five times because he was the only one around.
At one meeting, everyone got a coin telling when the next meeting was to be. Hermione had made them. Everyone was very impressed. The exorcists, not knowing why, followed the lead of everyone else and found out that the spell that she had down was very advanced.
But to their disappointment, the meetings had to be put on hold because the Quidditch season was nearing. The Griffindore Quidditch team captain, Angelina, had scheduled so many practices that there was no time to have the meetings.
They tried their best to help Ron, who was deeply nervous, especially when Draco Malfoy imitated him dropping the Quaffle.
It was November now, and Kanda was still absent. The exorcists were getting worried, but when they asked Komui, he just shrugged and said not to worry. They suspected that he knew something that he wasn't telling them.
On the morning of the game, they went down to breakfast to find Harry sitting with Ron, who was grumbling something.
"—rubbish," he mumbled. "I'm lousy. I can't play to save my life. What was I thinking?"
"What're you talking about, Ron? Don't talk like that!" said Lavi as he sat down beside him.
He just stared at him.
"Get a grip," said Harry sternly. "Look at that save you made with your foot the other day, even Fred and George said it was brilliant—"
Ron blanched and turned toward Harry.
"That was an accident," he whispered. Lavi sighed and Allen looked sympathetic. "I didn't mean to do it—I slipped off my broom when none of you were looking and I was trying to get back on and I kicked the Quaffle by accident."
"Well," said Harry, recovering quickly, "a few more accidents like that and the game's in the bag, isn't it?"
As the exorcists started eating, Hermione and Ginny came to sit down.
"How're you feeling?" asked Ginny. Ron said nothing, staying silent and staring at his cereal bowl.
"He's just nervous," said Harry.
"Well, that's a good sign, I never feel you perform as well in exams if you're not a bit nervous," said Hermione.
Lavi and Allen both stared at her with looks of horror on their faces.
"You can't be serious," Lavi muttered as Luna Lovegood came over from the Ravenclaw table.
Lenalee looked at her and started giggling. Allen and Lavi looked around and Lavi let out a snort of laughter.
"I'm supporting Gryffindor," she said, pointing at her hat, which looked like a real, life-sized lion's head. "Look what it does…"
She tapped it with her wand and it let out a very loud roar. Miranda, who had just sat down, jumped and fell off the bench. Everyone else in the vicinity jumped as well.
"It's good, isn't it?" said Luna happily. "I wanted to have it chewing up a serpent to represent Slytherin, you know, but there wasn't time. Anyway…good luck, Ronald!"
She drifted back to the Ravenclaw table. The three chasers soon hurried up, and Angelina said, "When you're ready, we're going to go straight down to the pitch, check out conditions and change."
"We'll be there in a bit," Harry said. "Ron's just got to have some breakfast."
"I don't think he's gonna eat anything," muttered Lavi after helping Miranda back to her seat.
He was right. Ten minutes later, he still hadn't eaten anything, so he decided to go down to the pitch. They were leaving when Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and whispered, "Don't let Ron see what's on those Slytherins' badges."
"Good luck, Ron," she said and kissed his cheek. He was stunned. "And you, Harry—"
"What's she talking about?" whispered Allen to Lenalee and Lavi as the two left. Hermione shot them a glance.
"Look," she hissed, pointing at some Slytherins.
"What…oh dear," said Allen, reading it. "Weasley is our king…what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing good," said Hermione as she ate a piece of toast.
"Where's Tim?" Lenalee asked Allen. He paused in his eating of the enormous pile of food.
"I…don't know," he mumbled through his mouthful of food.
"He's right there," said Lavi, not even looking up as he pointed straight up.
Allen looked up and saw a glint of gold. "Timcanpy!" he called out quietly and the golden golem dived quickly down and landed on the table.
"Where've you been?" Allen asked sharply. Timcanpy did a slight flutter of his wings that could have been taken as a shrug.
"Come on, lets go down to the pitch!" said Hermione. Lenalee nodded, and Lavi said, "Right!"
As a group, they went down to the Quidditch field, where the exorcists were to see their first Quidditch game. And what a Quidditch game it was...
Dun dun dun... Ok, I'm going to start having a little question thing at the bottom, as I've got a couple that a number of people asked about.
1) What's with you ending with the Akuma?
that... is just a bad habit, which I'm going to stop.
2) Who's that girl in Allen's dreams? (I've got this one like, 5 times)
That's a secret, but you will find out! She's in it later, I explain everything...so please, be patiant--its a far way away, since i'm kinda slow at typing this.
3) There's a time difference between HP and DGM...(not a question, but thought i'd put it in there)
I... don't know about that. I know there's a time difference, like 2 centurys or something. Either, I won't explain, and you just have to think that time doesnt matter, or I might think of something. :)
Send questions if you have them! Reviews? Cookies? Candy? Cake? Other goodies starting with 'C'? Thats all for now!