Beta: ToxicKittySaurus, broser

Edit: 21.01.15

Chapter 2
The Exorcist

A few days after Vernon Dursley decided to take action – he'd spoken to the lady at the London True Cross Academy about weirdness, the exorcists arrived in the overwhelming number of two. And they were not what the perfectly normal Dursley family expected at all. While the short middle–aged man with broad shoulders seemed to be more or less normal, the other one happened to be somewhat… controversial.

"You're really going to tell me that this kid... are you even taking me serious?!" Vernon Dursley growled, already red in the face and furious. Dudley decided he would better leave home about now, because the last time his father was so mad at somebody it ended up with his aunt floating to the ceiling. Having his own share of trauma cause by magic in close proximity to his father screaming, running away seemed like the sanest thing to do. So he did just that, sneaking away just a minute after the exorcists entered the house.

"I promise you, Mr. Dursley, that we are taking your case extremely seriously." The older man – Joseph O'something he was called – sighed, while the young man ventured deeper into the house under Petunia's supervision, to talk to the Potter boy. "Suguro might not look like somebody you would want to trust, but he's truly talented. . He's very good at what he does, and while he's young, he's actually more talented than I am. I've worked hard for many years to get where I am, but his expertise is something else."

"Really hard to believe, looking at him." Vernon grimaced. "He looks like a menace!"

"Quite so," the man nodded in agreement. "If I didn't know it for the fact I wouldn't believe that the young man is going to be head of a temple of all things!"

"Head of a temple?"

"Buddhist one, I think," he shrugged. "Or something like that. I'm always getting lost because in Japan they tend to overcomplicate these things. It is called Vidyaraja Dharani and its members are quite popular in our Japanese branch."

"Aren't exorcists supposed to be catholic?"

"Not really." The old man shook his head. "Well, in the old times, in Europe, maybe... but compared to the East, there's not that much to do. There you can never tell if the cat you kicked out of your doorstep was really a cat or some sort of spirit. Madness, I tell you!"

"So… you're saying he's actually good at these things… whatever you're planning to do here?"

"Obviously! While his temple joined the True Cross Order not that long ago, it already had a long tradition of training exorcists on its own. So, Mr. Suguro, while obviously young was practicing almost as long as he's been alive."

Vernon still wasn't exactly happy, but decided to see the things through anyway. If somebody spotted the ridiculous teen while he was here Vernon just could use the old, good story about St. Brutus and tell people that was some sort of friend of Harry's from there. Or something like that. Because while he was clearly unhappy with people the troublesome kid was hanging out with, he couldn't control him all the time, right?

xxx

So. Here it was. The day when some crazy guy, or maybe just somebody looking for easy money would wave all kinds of crap around his head, mumbling nonsense and then talk Uncle Vernon into paying a lot of money. And the next day Harry would definitely feel Dursley's opinion about spending the money on him. Like he asked for something like that.

Harry huffed. Why on Earth couldn't they just leave him alone? His friends definitely hadn't had a problem at all with that sort of stuff. Nobody, not anyone, was answering his letters. And he tried so many times to contact just about anybody! In an act of desperation he even wrote to Mrs. Weasley, but silence was the only answer he got.

And the dreams were getting worse. Cedric wasn't the only one haunting him and Harry really wasn't sure how could he possibly manage to survive till the beginning of the school year.

Sudden knocking on the door startled him and he almost fell off his bed.

"What now?" he asked loud enough, so Aunt Petunia, or whoever was on the other side could hear him.

The answer was rather simple: "Exorcism."

"Uh... come in, I guess?" Harry blinked, trying to keep his face neutral when he headed towards the doors.

But then the doors opened on their own and his jaw dropped, because that wasn't what he expected at all. An exorcist in his mind was some sort of middle-aged man, gray on his temples and balding slightly, waving around his cross and other stuff. That or some other rather amusing image.

Instead, he saw a tall, muscular Asian guy only a few years older than him, with a bright Mohawk and a piercing and a vicious stare that would make even Snape sweat.

Harry couldn't help it.

"Is this some sort of joke?"

"No," there was a shake of his head. The wild hair after that looked even wilder if that was physically possible. "I really am an exorcist."

"And you've got the papers to prove it?" Harry raised his eyebrow. Because the big guy, if you ignore his choice of style, looked absolutely normal. Well, his clothes seemed to be a bit odd, but only because of the weather. It was way too hot to be walking around in a coat, especially a dark one, but that was exactly what the exorcist was wearing. A strange one too, like somebody decided to mix a military jacket with church vestments.

A smirk came with the answer to his question. "Actually, yes."

"Okay, wow." Harry blinked. This was not what he expected. "So uh... what exactly are you going to do?"

"Talk a lot," The exorcist answered in a matter of fact voice. "Find yourself some sort of a book or something. Or die of boredom, whatever you fancy."

Harry blinked again. That definitely was not like anything he'd expected. And was somewhat anticlimactic.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," he answered and then decided that pushing Harry further inside the room by poking him on the forehead was a good idea.

It wasn't.

Harry wasn't sure what exactly happened. He was about to scream at the guy, or push back or do something, but... he was too late. The moment the exorcist touched his forehead; there was loud crack and a flash of light.

Harry was merely startled by that, while the guy ended up shaking his hand and spitting out a long string of words that sounded like profanities. Even if Harry couldn't understand Japanese at all, he was pretty sure it was the most vulgar thing he'd ever heard.

"Well, screw me!" The exorcist finally switched back to English. "I was pretty sure somebody was pulling my leg, but well, shit!"

"That... never happened before," Harry mumbled, still startled. Not that anybody actually surprised him by poking him all that often, but he was pretty sure nobody else got hurt while touching him. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just got the answer I was looking for."

"And what you were looking for?"

"If there's some nasty shit around you. Well, surprise, you're giving a piggyback to some nasty piece of crap!"

Harry would like to say it wasn't true, that it was just some sort of a hoax to milk a lot of money out of uncle Vernon. But he couldn't argue with facts, he'd experienced something unusual for himself, which made it a bit hard to argue. He wasn't even sure if it was magic, or something else.

"And you can get rid of it?" he finally asked.

"Right now I can only guess what this is. And excluding a handful of things that your unwanted guest definitely isn't," the man grimaced. "There's still a shitload of options."

"Oh..."

"So... this can take up to several hours and I believe we weren't introduced. Ryuji Suguro."

"Harry Potter, but you probably know that already."

"Read the report, yes. Care to tell me where you got that fancy scar?"

Harry suddenly felt very, very cold.

"What do you mean?"

"Your scar. The malevolent energy is concentrated right there," Suguro explained in a flat voice. "Felt sort of like a violent spirit, but not exactly."

Harry felt like he really, really needed to sit down. Dark spots were already dancing before his eyes and the colors suddenly escaped his world, leaving it all green and silent.

"...kid! Crap, kid, breathe!"

Harry blinked. Why did that Suguro guy have an arm wrapped around him? And when exactly had he moved close enough to his bed to sit down?

"Breathe slowly," the exorcist said. "And head between your knees, that helps too."

He decided that for the moment listening to the exorcist was rather fine idea. Breathing was good; breathing was making the world around him less green and was making the black spots go away. Harry liked breathing.

"I think I'm better now," he finally mumbled. Mostly because he was starting to feel a bit of awkward, with a stranger pretty much hugging him.

"Good," Suguro backed off. "Now, do tell what made you so worked up."

"I'm not really supposed to..." Harry gritted his teeth. "Look, there are a lot of laws against talking about magic to people who aren't. Because, you aren't magical, right?"

"Think so," Suguro shrugged, completely unmoved by the sudden revelation that magic actually existed. "But we got the memo about the magical world and so on."

"And you just believed it?"

"Why not?" Suguro looked at him. "I saw enough of strange stuff to believe in any kind of shit, magic included. So just talk to me, okay? If anybody has something against it, I can deal with that after we get rid of this thing."

"I don't think it will be that easy…" Harry mumbled. But the possibility of actually talking to someone about Voldemort and what had happened in the end of the Triwizard Tournament, nightmares and everything else… it was more than just tempting. Besides, people needed to be warned, right? And since there was nothing at all in the newspapers or on the TV… it was his chance to do something. And if he was a tiny little bit selfish about it…

So he did it. He broke the Statue of Secrecy, opened his mouth and started talking. It was actually quite difficult to describe everything he wanted to tell. Not to mention actually telling things in some sort of an order; Harry found himself more than once jumping back and forth, because he suddenly remembered an important detail he'd skipped a few minutes before. Luckily, Suguro was good at listening and smart enough to make a lot of connections on his own. But there wasn't enough time to tell everything. Not even close. And most of this stuff sounded really ridiculous once said out loud. Harry was flustered with embarrassment.

"Don't sweat it," Suguro smirked. "Saw stranger things."

"Like what?" Harry huffed. He really, really wanted to disappear right now. Disappearing would be great. But his cloak was in the cupboard under the stairs, locked shut, with the rest of his stuff. So no turning invisible for him any time soon.

"Huh," the exorcist blinked. "It's hard to pinpoint the oddest thing… Sometimes your brain is trying to erase thing for the sake of your sanity, I guess. But there was that chair, it stalked one guy for several months…"

"A chair?" Harry repeated. It sounded quite funny, but also like something a wizard could do to pull a prank on Muggles. On the other hand, if they dealt with it without magical help – because Suguro definitely was a Muggle, even if quite strange…

"It really was ridiculous," he grimaced. "Especially after we had to find a way to take it down from the ceiling."

There was a soft knock before the doors opened. Behind them Aunt Petunia stood with a sour grimace on her face. Next to her he could see a man who looked like a gentleman straight out of English novels. He had nicely done hair and a mustache over a friendly smile. The bags under his eyes looked like he could use some sleep. He was also wearing similar attire to Suguro, but he actually managed to look like it was some sort of suit instead of amilitary uniform.

The heavy silhouette of uncle Vernon was hovering over both of them. Dudley was probably nearby too. Harry grimaced. Since when had his room turned into some sort of tourist attraction?

"Are you done with the interview?" the gentlemanly looking exorcist asked.

"So–so," Suguro tilted his head with slightly irritated facial expression. "It's more complicated than we believed. Still doable, through."

"It's never easy, isn't it?" he shook his head.

"Not when you're stuck with me," Suguro grimaced. "Honestly, I'm getting all the odd cases your guys managed to find."

"Well," the other one merely shrugged. "You're from Japan. Everything is haunted in Japan."

Petunia was observing the whole exchange at a distance and it was getting more and more stupid. Honestly, did her husband turn stupid all of sudden? These two were bickering, not even taking the whole masquerade seriously. Even that boy seemed to understand it, considering the way he acted when Vernon announced the news. Surprisingly reasonable, especially for his kind.

"You ready?" the older exorcist asked gently.

"Yeah, I know more or less what to expect," the young man nodded. "Be on standby."

"Understood," he nodded. "You want me to react immediately or wait for your command?"

"Command," was the immediately answer.

"Fine by me," the old exorcist shrugged.

"Is this supposed to work like that?" Petunia frowned, looking between them. The young one seemed to be the boss here and that was just wrong. No kid that young should be experienced enough to give orders. But she had warned Vernon enough times already. Besides, what could go wrong? These people were not magical freaks or anything like that. They just believed the oddest and most ridiculous things.

So she decided to just watch the whole ordeal.

The young man - Suguro, he was called - made Harry sit down with his back next to his bed, while he sat down on the floor a few feet away from him in a rather relaxed way. There was an odd looking rosary wrapped around his hand.

His face seemed to be completely blank, excluding a slight frown of his brow and he was reciting prayers - Petunia wasn't exactly sure where these lines were from - without any hesistation.

For first few minutes she was staring. At least she wasn't alone; Harry seemed to be gaping too. Then, it actually got pretty boring. Because all Suguro was doing was sitting there and reciting ancient stuff. In at least three languages. At least his English was surprisingly good for a foreigner.

"It always looks like that?" Petunia asked quietly, eyeing the other exorcist.

"He's an Aria," the older exorcist said with a slight smile. He was standing in the doors not stiff, but not relaxed either

"Aria?"

"They fight the evil by reciting sacred verses. All kind, as you can hear. Not very dynamic, I must admit, and it means he needs a partner too if things go awry, but at the same time they're the safest to do the job around normal people."

"Normal?" she raised eyebrow. That was new. Usually, when dealing with the freaks they tended to act like she was the odd one in the room, or handicapped in some gruesome way. It was beyond offensive, really.

"Normal," he repeated once again, nodding. "There's no need to kid ourselves or anybody else. Exorcist definitely are not normal."

"How so?"

"The only way to be able to do this is to be exposed to the darkest things," he smirked humorlessly. "Not many live through that, even less stay sane."

"What do you mean?"

"You got touched by the evil and you will not be the same anymore, no matter how hard you try. It's a slight possibility for the boy to have side effects."

"Side effects?"

"We exorcist see the world as it really is. All the evil spirits, all the things that bring misery upon people... we are able to see all of it."

"Sounds rather terrifying," she said, because she felt like it needed to be said. Not that she actually believed the man, but the stuff he was saying… it was making her uneasy. Like something heavy was suddenly hanging in the air, making it hard to breathe.

"The line is set so much further for us..." he shook his head.

"But he's young. What could have made him this way?" Petunia decided to change the topic a little bit. That Suguro boy was a rather interesting youth in his very own odd way. Petunia didn't remember her grandmother very well, but the image of the old woman in her mind carried a rosary around too. She usually showed up just to drag her and Lily to the church or just to made them recite prayers with her. She was spent a lot of time on murmuring prayer after prayer, but she hadn't sounded like Suguro at all. His voice wasn't shaking at all, there was no hesitation either. Considering just how many of these things he remembered, not to mention using languages that were not his own… it was actually getting quite impressive. And a tad sad, because he was wasting himself in such an odd way instead of doing something more important with his life.

"This is a rather private thing to ask, Mrs. Dursley," the old exorcist told her with a frown.

Suddenly, the air filled with a thick, dark smoke, that took a human-like shape. The figure floating in the air looked odd, unnatural and terrifying. There was no need for any sort of supernatural abilities at all to feel the darkness and evil seeping from it, turning blood to ice.

"The one to vanquish the dark lord... when the seventh month dies... neither shall live...!"

Petunia gasped and stepped back a few steps, instinctively recognizing the threat. She might not know what killed her sister, she might not know what the vicious villain looked like, but she was sure it was him, the one called the Dark Lord, the murderer, the reason why Harry was left in that basket on her doorstep in the first place.

Harry recognized him too, knowing the voice from his nightmares, suddenly turning reality into one of them.

The dark figure was getting more and more real with every passing second, turning light seeping through the windows into darkness, imprisoning every single one of them in the room, without a way out.

The old exorcist was suddenly before Petunia, shielding her with his own body ready to... she didn't really know what he was going to do. But his kind face turned into a blank mask, his eyes shining dangerously, without a touch of fear in them. Suddenly, he wasn't the kind man she was talking with a few moments ago.

Suguro was standing too - and when exactly had he managed to stand up?- still reciting the holy verses in a strong voice, his eyes opened and staring straight at the terrifying wraith, which reached towards him with skeleton like claws.

Petunia couldn't do a thing, and neither could Harry. There was no wand in close proximity to the boy. Suguro was on his own. And wasn't afraid at all, which was just crazy. With a gesture, he ordered the other exorcist to stay where he was. Like he didn't need help at all, while darkness was growing in front of him more and more, casting dark, unnatural shadows that seemed to reach towards anybody in the wraith's proximity.

She screamed, suddenly spotting a dark shape crawling towards the entrance to the room, towards her. Petunia didn't know what it was or what it was able to do, but her instincts knew better and she was all too aware of Dudley standing right behind her.

The older exorcist saw it too. He made a few gestures and something suddenly rose to existence, between them and the dark creature. It looked almost like a complicated sewing pattern, created like a spider web shining with its own light.

The shadow reached in their direction, skeleton-like hand with finger like claws.

The moment it touched the thin lines in the air, there was a crack and sudden flash of light. The creature suddenly backed off.

Petunia exhaled, realizing just now she was holding her breath. She definitely didn't feel safe. The thin spider web of light definitely didn't seem to be all that solid.

Suguro slightly raised his voice and the creature turned its attention to him, circling around like it was looking for a blind spot. It was still growing, filling the room like dark fire, circling around the young exorcist. It was clearly cutting him off.

At least it left Harry alone, concentrating on somebody that was more dangerous to it.

Suguro was moving slightly, keeping his eyes on the monstrosity, his voice still loud and clear, almost like he was mocking the evil spirit.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me..."

The wraith suddenly gripped his arm.

He was ready, knife already in his hand. Suguro grinned ferociously and cut his own palm, letting the blood seep out. He said something too, but Petunia was unable to catch the word, much too horrified by the dark presence and the way Suguro had cut himself to recognize anything else.

Suddenly, bright fire lit the room, seeping through nowhere, or maybe brought up here by the offering of the wound. Suguro made a command with a single gesture and the unnatural fireobeyed him, wrapping itself around the dark figure and binding it in chain-like structures, then setting it aflame. High-pitched shrieks filled the air, loud enough to make the glass in the windows shake and creating spider webs of cracks.

The smell of amber and burned sand filled the air.

The unnatural fire died as suddenly as it appeared. There was no trace of it in the suddenly dark room whatsoever, like there had been no flames at all. Even the air seemed to be cool. For a mere second, Petunia managed to catch an oddly bright light in the exorcist's eyes, but that could have been just an illusion. Eyes definitely didn't shine with their own light, magic or not.

"What...was that?" Petunia breathed weakly.

"The ace up his sleeve," the old exorcist said in gloomy voice. "Most of the Aria need a support during the exorcism because while reciting the sacred texts they are completely vulnerable."

"But this is not the case with him," she said slowly.

"It's not. You found yourself quite in luck, Mrs. Dursley. His whole clan possesses…a certain affinity towards fire, but the head of the temple is on a level of his own."

"Head of the temple?"

"Yeah, he's the next most holy priest… or something like that. As I said, it was quite lucky. The wraith was quite strong and I'm afraid somebody else would leave a lot more mess than a broken window."

Well, Petunia found herself thinking. The floor looked like it had never seen any fire at all and the rest of the room was just fine too. She could deal with the broken glass.

"That was interesting," the young exorcist said, his voice calm and steady, like there had been no horrific wraith in the room mere moment ago.

"Interesting?" Petunia repeated weakly.

"Not exactly what I would expect, but not in the league with some of the things I have had to deal with in the past," he shrugged. "Anyhow, I believe we should talk a bit more. The spirit was doing a more than just screwing around with the kid."

"W–what do you mean?" Harry managed to say. His voice was weak and he looked like he was close to fainting; very pale, ashen almost with eyes wide open and irises big enough to make them seem black.