A/N: So many reviews and favs! Thank you! Having your attention is making me so very happy^^
When I started writing this story, I fully expected to be done with the whole kidnapping issue in chapter 3. Then in chapter 5. You can see now, how good I'm at predicting stuff, even while having a detailed plan of action right in front of my face. Literally.
Chapter 8
A Doors To Another World
Kreacher did what he was told to do and then disappeared again, leaving every wizard and witch who paid attention to the House–Elf dumb folded. Especially Sirius, who still was looking suspiciously between Suguro and the stairs that led upstairs, where the nest of the annoying creature was located.
The exorcist himself was kneeling in front of the wounded boy, working quickly and efficiently, like he had done that before and definitely not only once.
"Wouldn't guess that herbal mesh would heal anything but slight burns," Moody murmured, eyeing curiously the process, while his magical eye was wandering all around the place, like it was looking for new enemies.
"It's not healing," Suguro shook his head. "It's only stopping the process, so he won't die in the next few hours."
"What are you saying?" Mrs. Weasley gasped.
"He needs to go to a hospital," The exorcist said slowly. "One with people that knows exactly what to do."
"We can't just wander around London with a kid in his state!" Sirius protested.
"Maybe St. Mungo…" Hermione murmured under her breath, eyeing the book. "If we give them the information about these monsters, then maybe…"
"And you really want to bet on maybe?" Suguro snorted, raising one hand and reached towards his neck and then took off the golden chain that he was always wearing. There was a small key hanging on the end of it. "Besides, I have a perfect way to transport him safely and instantly where he will get all the help he needs."
"Explain!" Mrs. Weasley demanded.
"This," Suguro said with a short not. "Is the Emergency Key. When you turn it in the lock of any doors, the doorway leads to the TCO hospital instead of a next room."
"Wait, what?" Sirius gasped. "Are you telling me… That you could like waltz out of here at any given moment?!"
"Yeah," the exorcist just shrugged. "But I was curious, so I decided to stay a bit and observe. Anyhow, there are limits on the Key. No more than three can go through at once and between each travel you have to wait for a few hours."
"In other words," Moody snickered. "Whoever go there is on his own, with a wounded kid no less. You think we're stupid?"
"I think you care for the kid enough to take a risk and help him before it's too late," Suguro said and handed the Key to Mrs. Weasley. It was her son, after all, so the decision also should be hers.
"I…" she swallowed. "I'm going to do it."
"That's risky!"
"I don't have other choice!" she groaned.
Molly was terrified. Her son was still unconscious and still feverish. Her hands were shaking so much, that she dropped the key she was trying to use. She stared at it, shining at the floor innocently, and trying not to start crying. She needed to be strong.
Molly took deep breath and then picked up the key. She was going to save her son.
When she opened the doors, complete darkness welcomed her, instead of a room that usually was at the other side. She gasped, staring in the black void, but it didn't brightened a tiniest bit.
"Don't worry," Suguro said. "I promise, when you walk through this door, you will find help for him. Trust me."
She wanted to. Mad-Eye Moody wouldn't shut up about how dangerous this young man could be and she saw with her very own eyes that he had no respect for people like Dumbledore at all. He dared to bark even at her, spitting out cursewords with a cynical smile.
But then he risked his life to fight these monsters and gave up his only way out. This couldn't be a trap, right? He wasn't that sort of man, to just trick her when she was at her lowest, just to take some sort of low revenge upon them?
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Suguro groaned, noticing her hesistation. "What kind of a person do you think I am, woman?!"
"Right," Molly chuckled, unsure if it was the nerves, or something else. She casted a levitating spell on her son, carefully floating his body over the ground.
It was just like Suguro said, the moment she stepped into the darkness, was the same moment she stepped into completely foreign place. It was very, very bright, the light coming from strange, flat lamps on the white ceiling, to the point Molly was blinded for the moment.
The room smelled strongly on antiseptics and fresh herbs, an odd mix of muggle and magical hospital. There was a row of several identical doors on the wall behind her, all of them placed too close to each other to led to different rooms. There were people around too, a lot of them. She could hear a chair dropping to the floor with a loud noise and a lot of voices. She definitely wasn't an expected guest.
"Please, we need help!" Molly called.
It really wasn't long until she received it. Somebody kneeled down by Fred, somebody else asked her about how much time passed from the attack and what caused it. Molly couldn't quite recall the conversation, everything was blurred. But after a short moment, she was left in the corridor, while these people put her son onto a mobile bed and took him away.
One of the people who asked all the questions was still around; a short woman with broad shoulders and dark skin. She had a nice, comforting voice, even if her accent was more than just odd and probably the most intense stare Molly had ever seen. Maybe because her brown eyes were so big and round or maybe the secret was in the eyebrows, wide and dark as coal.
"Don't worry miss, out medics knows what they are doing," the woman wrapped arm around her and led her to some other room and then towards one of the chairs. "But I really need to ask you, who gave you the key? And where he or she is?"
"He's ah–" Molly started, but the Fidelius Charm didn't let her talk about the Grimmauld Place. "He's safe. Really."
The woman sighed and slowly walked around the wooden table, so she could sit in a chair on the opposite side.
"Let's start from the beginning," she said, reaching of the tea service that stood on the wooden surface and filling two cups out of four on the plastic tray. "My name is Marie Chavez and, as you probably know already, I'm an exorcist."
Molly slowly nodded, staring at her tea. She was literally out of her world and just terrified. About Fred, about this odd, alien world of Muggles and of Muggles themselves.
She introduced herself, suddenly finding out it was hard to talk when her voice was shaking so much, then talked about Suguro and the monster attack.
Marie was only asking questions from time to time, otherwise patiently waiting for her to finish the sentence. Molly was glad, because it was easier to finish the story this way.
"There is a lot of things you didn't tell me," the exorcist pointed out, after Molly was done.
"I'm sorry," she said. "But I really can't do that."
"Whatever," Marie shrugged with a heavy sigh. "We already contacted a man Suguro was working with, he said he would like to talk to you. He's going to show up shortly, in the meanwhile… well, if you need something, just ask."
xxx
"Okay, that was weird," Sirius said after a short moment.
They all watched Molly and Fred disappear in the doorway that had no right to even exist in the first place, not to mention actually work.
"That didn't look like a muggle technology," Moody pointed out with a frown. "I have no idea what it was."
Or what he saw, when his magical eye set on the dark passage. He didn't knew words to describe what was on the other side. All he could get out of this was the strong impression that the reality was bend and twisted beyond recognition.
"Just a way to get around," Suguro just shrugged, like it wasn't anything important.
"I definitely was not anything muggle-made!" Hermione shook her head. "It was more similar to the Portkeys than anything else..."
"I don't know how these works either," Suguro shrugged. "I just use them."
"That sound rather stupid..." Hermione responded immediately. "I mean, if you don't how something works, then if it will get broken or something you will have no way of knowing how to repair it, or anything!"
"Fair point," the exorcist nodded. "But I know the creator."
"Oh," she blinked. "then it's fine, I guess..."
Moody smirked, deciding it was as good moment to change the topic of the conversation as any. "Weren't you planning to tell us who are you any time soon?"
"You really want to talk about this now?" Suguro groaned. It was hard to not notice the annoyance in his voice.
Alastor decided to play along for the moment. There were things he needed answers for, but safety was always a much more pressing issue, especially since one of the kids already got hurt. Besides, it would be easier to talk with the exorcist alone. "You think there is still something out there?"
"Are you sure there isn't?" Ryuji challenged him. As expected. The exorcist was surprisingly easy to manipulate once one knew which buttons to push.
"Fine," Moody nodded, unable to keep the smirk from reaching his face. "I think this can wait until we make sure that it is safe."
"We?"
"You said it yourself, kid," Moody just shrugged. "You guys don't work alone, do you?"
"And you are planning on dealing with ghouls how exactly?"
"Back at ya," Moody smirked. "What if you bump into something purely magical? It's not like you can pick up a wand and magic your way out of the trouble..."
Instead of finishing the sentence, Alastor let the exorcist do the math on his own. While he sadly was unable to see the ghouls – or whatever these things were – until they were attacking, the kid was still just a Muggle. Unable to see all the magical beings that were still creeping among the shadows of the old mansion. Going out without any sort of a back–up would be a plain stupid thing to do.
"You are right," Suguro said, because he was anything but stupid. "Second set of eyes would be an useful asset."
Moody chuckled darkly and moved forward, not even looking back to check if he was followed. He knew he was. Soon enough, they were standing on the top floor of the building arm by arm, eyeing suspiciously the narrow staircase leading to the attic.
"I guess we should start from the very top," the exorcist said with a grimace on his face. "Not almost the top and then act like we did our job correctly."
"You seem to not like attics very much," Moody noted.
"It's not as bad as old Japanese mansions, but bad enough," he said, like it was explaining everything.
Alastor chuckled in response. "What, now you're a chicken?"
"I really want to kick you, old man!"
He didn't, since they actually had a job to do and the sooner they deal with it, the better. So Moody waved his wands and the doors to the attic opened with a small thud.
"It doesn't look like there is something in there," he said. "Though apparently my all-seeing eye is not able to see everything."
"All-seeing?"
"Magic."
The attic, luckily was indeed just as empty as it looked in the ex-auror eyes. So they started to check the actual rooms. Pretty quickly, which was surprising. Alastor hadn't expected the exorcist to be able to cooperate with him so easily, or maybe he didn't suspect himself of being able to work that well with a muggle brat.
To tell the truth, the kid was better than Tonks. He wasn't stumbling over stuff every now and then, was not wasting time over asking unnecessary questions and when he was talking it actually provided information about what they were facing and how to deal with it.
"Why are looking at me like that?" Suguro asked, noticing the sudden attention.
"You are used to it, don't you?"
He immediately understood. "Well, I am an exorcist for quite awhile," Suguro said like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"You're what, twenty?"
"Twenty one," the exorcist immediately corrected in that adorable, bratty manner.
"And you're telling me that you have a quite decent experience."
Suguro rolled his eyes. "Five years. And yes, I'm aware of the fact that it is early. Usually people spend three years on learning this stuff. I'm just stubborn."
"Hard to not notice that," Moody snickered.
They continued on, finding much more magical creatures that Alastor expected to.
"I think I'm going to discretely murder that House Elf!" The auror growled after they bumped into a boggart. At least the exorcist was too smart to be afraid of things that simply could kill both of them without letting Alastor to see them.
"How is that his fault?"
"Every day kids, the village idiot and his friend are cleaning this place up, banishing all that shit!" Alastor was perfectly aware of the fact he was ranting. "Then that blasted piece of crap bring home everything he is able to find!"
"Well," Suguro blinked. "That's a new angle on hoarding, I guess."
moody grit his teeth. He probably could deal with that nasty thing after they were done. Sometime later he probably would ask about the boggart. Not many people were able to hold an actual conversation with their worst fear.
"You kid alright?"
"Yeah," he coughed quietly. "Give me an hour or two and I'm going to be peachy."
"I'm more interested in the present."
"Well, have a ghoul breathe right into your face and let's see how you will feel," he groaned.
"Woah, snappish!"
"Sorry," Suguro pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's just... people aren't supposed to get too close to these things. "
"Yet you don't seem to be too overwhelmed," Moody noted. To tell the truth, besides that coughing the exorcist was acting like it was just another Thursday. He was curious if it all was just an act. Alastor actually hoped for it to be the case.
"I know a guy who was able to summon these things as his familiars," Suguro said, his voice still neutral on the border with bored. "It's not the first time for me to fight them either. I know where to stop, if you're wondering about that."
Moody was glad about that. If there was something he hated more than Death Eaters and dumb wizards that decided to go dark a few steps to many, it was suicidal brat on a mission.
Now, however the old Auror was curious. Since the kid was actually talking for once about his world, it would be a shame to not use the opportunity. "What was the first time like?"
"A ghoul grabbed my face and I was really surprised that I was still alive," the exorcist actually chuckled. "It was scary as hell, but it was also the first time I've really tested if I can do this sort of stuff."
"That sound like you could die."
"I was sure as hell that I'm going to. The whole place was filled with professionals hiding in every possible corner, ready to interfere if things go too far, but I didn't know that at the time."
Alastor hummed in answer, toying with the idea in his mind. He liked it. It sounded like something that actually could teach trainees something useful instead of standing still and shouting their lungs out about arresting people. Especially now, with a new war on the horizon. However, the Ministry would instantly interfere if he tried to mess with the training program. Nobody needed these bastards to get any more suspicious than they already were. At least Tonks was learning something and befriended a handful of younger trainees, so she could show them a few tricks.
It didn't took all that much time for them to move down to the first floor. It was supposed to be much safer here, so naturally when they opened the doors to the studio of late Lord Black a ghoul launched itself at them.
They both moved away, Suguro to the left while Moody stepped back to the right. The beast landed right in between them with heavy thud, three deformed heads moving in unnatural way to look around.
Moody instantly barked a paralyzing spell, hoping to hit the target before the ghoul disappear. The spell hit, but not all of the creature stiffened. A big piece just torn itself off with a nauseating creak of breaking stitches, skin and meat. The room instantly was filled with horrifying smell.
"Again!" Suguro ordered. His shout caused the ghoul to turn the attention towards the exorcist. It's body - the pair still able to move freely - flickered and vanished.
"I can't see it!" Moody warned him. "Watch out for the lights!"
Suguro jumped out of the way of something, his hands already in move.
Moody waited. It would be stupid to just shot blindly and risk hitting the one person in the room that actually was able to see the enemy. Only a split second and that odd shield the exorcist was using blossomed to life, thin pale lines shining in the air, in just the right moment to protect him from–
"Pertificus Totalus!" Moody shouted as fast as possible and then send another curse and another, pointing at the space right over the shield. One of them hit the target – the air around it bend in strange way, like the reality itself couldn't decide if the beast was supposed to became visible or not – and another one followed, right in the middle of that awful tearing noise.
While the spell keep the creature from moving, turning it into the most creepy sculpture Moody ever saw, the laws of physics were still working. Which was bad, especially for the carpet the ghoul was standing on. Black, thick fluid hit the floor with unpleasant splattering noise, filling the air with the stench Alastor would never be able to forget.
Suguro somehow was still capable of speech. Alastor has no way of knowing what exactly the exorcist was saying since he was using Japanese, but the ex-Auror was too occupied with not vomiting to really care.
Soon enough the ghoul - ghouls? - vanished, but the awful stench was still filling the room, not to mention the black puddle on the carpet.
Moody pointed wand at it and cast one vanishing spell after another, trying to get rid of as much of it as it was possible, while the exorcist jumped towards the windows.
Feeling jealous, Alastor cursed under his breath - bad idea, since talking made him suck more of the stinking air in - and switched to cutting curses. After the ancient carped was in shreds, he just levitated it into the chimney and with great satisfaction cast the igniting curse.
"That's better," he gasped, finally sticking his head outside and breathing in the sweet, fresh air.
"Now we know what was the bad idea."
"Well, he was standing still," Alastor pointed out. "After three spells, but that's better than it chewing out somebody's head."
"I don't like the smell."
"Surprise, surprise," Moody snickered. "You could've just set him on fire."
"Bad idea, unless you're really good with a fire-thrower."
"I'm pretty sure you could..." Alastor started. He was pretty sure he remembered Harry talking something about setting evil spirits on fire and memory wasn't something that failed him very often.
"To do that I need to bleed a little," Suguro grimaced. "Bleeding around a ghoul is one hell of a bad idea."
The Auror wanted to ask why, but it clicked inside his mind before he even opened his mouth. The smelly substance was toxic and he saw not so long ago how quick people were getting sick after the thing just touched them. Open wound, even a small one, was definitely way too much risky in that sort of a situation. Especially since the bastards were jumping all over the place, dripping like there was no tomorrow.
"How long can you going like that?" Moody asked instead.
"Depends," he shrugged. "But don't worry, it doesn't seems to be too dangerous."
"You have a weird perspective on what's dangerous, kid."
"You have no idea," Suguro smirked.
xxx
Molly Weasley never was too fond of Muggle world. It wasn't that she was seeing the non-magical people as something less, it was just... so odd. It seemed to be unnatural, so much different from how the things were working in her own world.
She felt so out of the place in this building they located her in. The dishes, the laundry, it all was done by the machines. The electricity ran through the building, filling all rooms with strong but cold light and that strange buzz she couldn't get used to, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.
That was probably exactly how Suguro felt, back at the Grimmauld Place. No wonder he was so angry all the time. People were coming and going at all times, minding their own business and not paying too much attention to her, up until the moment somebody stopped right in front of her and coughed to catch her attention.
The man was a bit older than her, his hairline was already graying and recessing slightly. He wasn't very high nor looked particularly threading.
"So," he said, looking over her with wary eyes, after introducing himself as Joseph O'Callaghann. "You're the one who showed up with Suguro's key. Care to explain that?"
"He gave it to me," she said, looking him straight in the eyes.
"That's curious, since he's been missing for several days," the man grunted.
"I... we... he's not in any danger, I promise!"
The man just snorted at that. "You just brought up kid that was chewed on by a ghoul. How that's safe?"
"We didn't know what it was!" she protested.
"Then explain it to me, please. How come you showed up with his key, after he went missing?"
"I... it's true he gave it to me, really! We just... we were worried about Harry and when we heard about the exorcism, we wanted to know everything there was to know from the source."
"So you are magical?"
Molly slowly nodded, uncomfortable with revealing that to the Muggles. Again. It would be hard to not notice, since she walked into this damned building levitating her son in the air.
"And you guys just decided that you can do whatever you want, as long as somebody is not waving his crazy stick around?" he groaned. "You people are really the worst!"
"We never did anything to you, me or anybody else, I promise you!"
"And I was supposed to know that how exactly?" Joseph growled. "Do you even know it felt, having him disappear like that?!"
"My son is lying in your hospital, Merlin damn it!" Molly shouted back, her face reddening in frustration.
"So, that should make everything fine?" he said, his voice cold and unforgiving. "Do you have any idea how many kids I saw vanish only for their dead body to show up at some point later?"
He moved towards her, fury burning in his eyes, but Mrs. Weasley stood her ground, looking straight at his face.
"What," she hissed. "Are you going to hit me now?"
He certainly looked like he was at least thinking about that.
"No," the exorcist exhaled deeply, visibly forcing himself to tone down. "I'm not going to. We're both pissed and scared right now and that wouldn't lead to anything to solve our problems. I'm just going to walk away and catch my breath and you are going to sit here, waiting for somebody to tell you when you can visit that kid of yours."
Molly licked her lips. She wanted to argue back, because the accusation – and implications that followed – hurt. The exorcist was painting her wonderful world in dark and grim colors, like it was an awful place lacking morality and all the other important things. That wasn't the image they were fighting for now, now it wasn't something both of her brothers died for.
The worst thing was, the man was right, at least partially. Molly had no idea what she would do if it was one of her children to disappear like that, without a word or trace, only for somebody suspicious show up several days later with an item that belonged to them.
"One more thing," O'Callaghan said, looking straight at her. "Your wand, please."
"Excuse me?" she gasped.
"Your wand," he repeated. "I'm not going to risk safety of anyone here just because you decide to wave that stick around."
"What about my safety? And my son?"
"Well, if Suguro is as fine as you suggest, then there isn't anything to worry about, right?" a wolfish smile spread on his lips. "We're going to learn about that soon enough."
"Am I a prisoner?" Molly finally asked, handing her wand with a slightly shaking hand.
"I don't know," he shrugged, carefully taking the wooden item away from her. "Is Suguro?"
"No!" she protested immediately.
"Then you have nothing to worry about."
Molly was missing her wand already.
xxx
A sudden loud crack echoed through halls not long after Suguro and Moody returned to the others and declared the building to be safe once again. It wasn't even close to the end of all things related to the attack. The exorcist wanted to at least set up several another chalk rings around the place, so people could retreat when needed and Alastor agreed with the idea. If something managed to snuck inside without them noticing, it sure could repeat the feat and murder them all in the sleep. A small miracle it didn't happen already.
"Somebody Apparated," Sirius muttered, furrowing his brow slightly.
"And that's good?" Suguro asked, looking from over the building plan he and Moody were currently studying to find the best spots for ghoul–safe zones.
"Nobody unwanted is ever going to be able to creep inside this place," he explained with a small shrug.
"Gee, not so long ago I saw just how well that precious security of yours is working."
Sirius grinned. "Somebody's snarky!"
"About seventy kilograms of an undead body landed on me and tried to eat my face not that long ago," Ryuji groaned. "And don't forget that little detail about still being kidnapped."
"Think about it like a vacation?"
Suguro looked at him.
"What?" Sirius shook his head energetically, like he wanted to shake off the uncomfortable gaze.
"Nothing," Ryuji sighed. "I just have that weird feeling that the brain of your turned into a pickle some time ago."
"Not you too!" Sirius growled. "That woman wouldn't shut up about it! And besides, what if I do drink a little too much? It's not like I have anything else to do..."
"I'm not having this conversation," Suguro murmured, hiding face in his hands. Especially not now. He just ran up and down the stairs fighting his way through and then ran back and forth the whole place, looking for more things that wanted to smack him in the face. The fact that the building still wasn't cleaned from every dangerous magical traps and creatures wasn't helping. He was really grateful that the old dude without a leg decided to join him. It sounded really miserable, but without the man he would be in trouble. Besides, being a cripple didn't stop Moody from being a badass.
Only now they were finished and he could finally sit down, enjoying his new collection of bruises. Exorcising a bunch of aggressive demons wasn't without a price too; right now Suguro felt like somebody wiped floor with him. It was more psychological exhaustion than anything else - there was a reason why exorcists never worked alone.
At least the kids enjoyed their time, waving around burning salvia around and setting up little places for burning aloe oil to cleanse the air from whatever the ghouls left behind.
The nervous footsteps were easily heard and getting louder, meaning that this short moment of peace was coming to an end.
"What happened?" Mr. Weasley ran into the room, looking around wildly, like he was expecting another ghoul to jump right at him. Few others followed – but both the grump in black and that high and stiff lady decided to stay away from conversation for the moment. "They told me at work, so I rushed here-"
"And you are too late to even pick up the trash," Moody finished the sentence for him.
"Oh shut up!" Mr. Weasley groaned. "Molly... and my son! They told me...!"
"There was an incident," Suguro started to explain with a heavy sigh. "The boy got hurt during it and right now he is in a hospital, getting help he needs. His mother went with him."
"Hospital?" Mr. Weasley shook his head. "But St. Mungo would notify me immediately!"
"The problem is," Moody smirked. "It was not St. Mungo. Apparently our guest had a way out of his own and stayed here merely to humor us."
"A wha- What?!"
"It wasn't magic that attacked," Ryuji continued. Or tried to, since it happened to be the moment when other people decided to join him and the dog-man. "So your people would have no idea how to deal with it."
Moody and the grump with a crooked nose were giving each other dirty looks.
"Well, it might looks like a situation with exchanging hostages too, don't you think?" Moody smiled humorlessly at Suguro.
He decided that a small shrug was the best response for the moment, since the old man wasn't all that wrong. If it came to the worst, Joseph definitely would play this particular card. Or he's going to be ordered to do so by a higher power.
Mr. Weasley however didn't like the answer very much. He went pale for a short moment, becoming still as statue. Then his face twisted in an angry grimace and he marched straight at Suguro, grabbing him by the shirt.
"You asshole!" he growled. "You knew, didn't you?! You planned it all...!"
"Do you," Suguro said slowly, grabbing the man by the wrists. Pushing him away would definitely be a bad idea. One that could be easily mistaken for an attack of some sort. There were people trying to smack him in the face before. "Really believe that I would risk somebody's life if I could just wait for the night and walk away?"
"So what..." there was a defeated look at the man's face when he slowly sat down on the sofa. "What is going to happen to my family?"
"They are going to get help," Ryuji said, trying to sound gently. "Fred needs help of somebody who know how to deal with that kind of wound and he's going to get it."
"But St. Mungo..."
"Look," Ryuji sighed. "You people have no idea how to deal with that sort of things and we do know how to do that. There is a possibility that you could work it out on your own, but before then the kid would probably kick it."
"But... will they just let them go? Considering who we are?"
There was another question, the one that Mr. Weasley didn't dare to asked out loud.
They have kidnapped Suguro, after all. And his people were in their rights to do something.
Suguro sighed.
"The fact that I've send them to the hospital with the emergency key is telling a lot," he started to explain. "If I was in any real danger wouldn't you think that I would use it to get out as soon as possible?"
"Why didn't you?"
"I decided that I wasn't in too big trouble, considering how you were treating Harry," Suguro grimaced slightly. "on the other hand, knowing a bit about how frivolous you people are around memory modification I should've be more wary, but well..."
He shrugged.
"Besides, snatching me out of the street ended up as a really lucky thing for you."
Moody grimaced. Suguro was right, without him stuck at the Grimmauld Place at the time of the attack, the situation would be way more serious. Alastor was pretty sure that before they would even understand what they were up against it would be far too late. They didn't even know how to treat the wounds. To tell the truth Alastor hadn't the slightest idea if they could beat these things with spells at all; all the tricks he used during the fight were only pushing the monsters back.
"The question is," Snape sneered, voicing his opinion for the first time. "Why these... things showed up in the first place."
"Are you suggesting they were after me?" Suguro looked at him with interest.
"Are you trying to tell me they didn't?"
"Well, you do have a pretty high position as far as I know..." Moody grunted, unhappy that he was agreeing with the grump for some reason.
Severus frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"I decided to do my own investigation," Alastor smirked. "And I happened to find this and that. Like the fact that our guest is apparently a head of a temple."
Suguro just rolled his eyes. " And I'm not. Yet."
"So somebody could go after you?" Severus continued pushing, trying to force the exorcist to admit… something.
"I hope not," he snorted, ignoring the unsaid accusations. "I would at least expect from my potential killer to be to do his homework and don't try to kill me with stuff I'm familiar with."
"He did recognized these - whatever they were - just by the smell," Hermione joined the conversation.
"Anyhow, I don't think there is somebody pissed enough at me to try," Suguro shrugged. "Especially something like that."
"They were just brainless monsters," Moody grunted. "Invisible for most of the time, but still..."
"Actually, they were too clever to just show up on their own," Ryuji grimaced slightly. "And their kind don't tend to show up out from the blue like that either. It was either one hell of a tamer or bunch of tamers with same familiars. Kinda overkilling it, when you could just snipe troublesome people from afar."
"So somebody was controlling them?"
"That what I just said," Suguro groaned. "And whoever it was, wasn't expecting an exorcist to be around."
"That just silly," Snape snorted. "Nobody can enter this building since nobody knows where it is."
"How come?" Suguro raised eyebrows.
"Magic," Severus sneered with noticeable satisfaction.
"That's cute, but none of you ever expected the... other side of supernatural to exist, right? Ghouls doesn't really count as humans, I believe."
"But to send anything they still would have to know the address," Moody pointed out.
"And you are sure that nothing was looking over your shoulder when you were telling where this place is to some of your friends?"
"These things didn't look like they were able to talk. Or read. Or comprehend anything too complicated."
"And there are much more intelligent spirits and demons wandering around," Suguro shrugged. "And right now, I'm the only person who knows how to deal with these things. So stop arguing already. You just sound stupid."
xxx
Minerva McGonagall was rarely visiting the Order of Phoenix headquarters. Not because she didn't want to be included in the fight, but because during the summer break her calendar was really stuffed.
There were Muggleborns to introduce to the magical world, there was the lesson timetable to create and all the staff related things to do before the August ends. She had to create her lesson plans in between reading responses from the families of all of the first years and writing back to answer any question they could have.
Because of that, while she was aware of the unusual guest at the Grimmauld Place for quite some time, it was the first time she actually meet the young man who called himself an exorcist.
Minerva had to admit, she was curious. Severus called him names usually reserved for Sirius Black, while Albus just said he was a very interesting person, though a bit rebellious.
The mess that welcomed her at the Grimmauld Place definitely wasn't something she expected, but she decided to keep her mouth shut and observe, before doing anything. It also gave her a chance to observe the unusual guest.
She ended up with a rather good impression. Even after Moody taunted him, the young man kept his cool.
"May I talk to you for a moment?" Minerva finally asked, after the people stopped arguing.
He looked up at her, then his gaze slowly wandered down and then it returned to her face.
Severus said that he lacked any sort of a respect towards his elders, but he didn't strike her like that sort of a person. Severus as usual was exaggerating. The exorcist seemed to be careful and calculating but not necessary hostile.
"Sure," he said.
She led him away from the group, so nobody would butt in to add their opinion or starts argue over some small thing.
The young exorcist sat in front of her and waited in silence for her to start talking.
Which was the hard part.
"I don't want to sound like I'm trying to rationalize our wrongdoings," Minerva sighed. "But I feel like an explanation is actually needed."
"Then do explain, please," he said with a sigh. He definitely didn't seem like he expected her words to change anything at all. Well, considering his situation it wasn't all that surprising. By all means, the magical world sometimes seemed like it was filled with self-righteous, better-than-thou dimwits unable to even hold a proper conversation. There were times when she had to fight hard to keep the embarrassed blush at bay, because muggle parents of her students pointed out some uncomfortable truths.
"This is going to sound ridiculous, but you were kidnapped to keep everyone safe," Minerva said. Then grimaced. "It sounds even worse when you say it out loud."
"It kinda does," Suguro agreed with an amused chuckle.
"You probably already know that we are at war, right?"
He nodded, so Minerva continued. "You see, the problem is, the enemy already knows who we are. Or is at least able to guess well enough. because of that there is a real possibility that we are being observed."
His brow furrowed. "I doubt that anybody got enough resources to keep an eye on a whole bunch of people and stay in hiding at the same time."
"That's true. Or would be, if not for the fact the government decided to turn Dumbledore into a public enemy," she sighed. "Because the Headmaster is under suspicion, all his friends, workers and old allies might also be under discreet observation. It wouldn't be such an obstacle if not for some of the Death Eaters holding quite powerful positions in the Ministry."
"If I understand the situation correctly, they're also rather... not fond of anything from the non-magical world, right?" Suguro asked. "If yes, then why are you expecting them to pay attention to what are you doing away from your world?"
"If only it was so easy," she sighed. "Then we would be seated in some nice, muggle place instead of this grim mansion."
"Well, at least with you standing against people with resources like that I might understand the paranoia. What I don't understand is how kidnapping bring less attention than... I don't know, a visit in a church? Sending a normal letter?"
"Sadly it is less suspicious to snatch somebody off the street than stopping and actually talking," she sighed. "Especially after we used a non-magical person to get Harry out of trouble."
"So, now they are paranoid about you having agents all over the place and plotting taking over the world or something?"
"Exactly," she nodded. "Minus the sarcasm."
"Okay," he nodded. "That somewhat makes sense. But you still made contact with me..."
"Mr. Weasley work is to find charmed items in the muggle world and turning them back into mundane items. Since the magical world need to stay hidden..."
"It include messing with memory of people unlucky enough to stumble upon your trash?"
"Something like that," she nodded. "As far as our people are concerned, you are just one of those people, but managed to slip during the intervention. Mr. Weasley simply asked his friends to help him cover the situation, before it land him in some sort of a trouble."
It was easy to guess that letting somebody slip and probably telling stories about people with wooden sticks would be a really troublesome situation for somebody whose job was to prevent situations like that.
Leaving a false trace in the documentation was not that difficult; sadly, many of the Ministry workers were making their lives easier by messing up with files. Arthur was protesting against such a practice for quite some time, so he was going to be viewed as a hypocrite if somebody actually decide to look into the situation, but that wasn't necessary a bad thing. The worst he could meet would be a knowing smile or amused chuckle.
"Huh," Suguro blinked. "That's actually pretty clever."
Minerva herself found it to be more despicable than anything else, being forced to trick a way of communication through lies and misdirections.
"Clever? Not really," she said, winking her nose. "But we prefer to not bring too much attention to people that could know something about Harry. For their own good."
"Does it have anything to do with Harry and his cousin being attacked by a soul-sucking prison guards some time ago?"
"More or less, yes," she nodded. "We definitely were not expecting something like that to happen, but..."
"Since there are Death Eaters playing active roles in that government of yours it's not that much of a surprise," the exorcist shrugged. "I'm still pretty annoyed about the whole kidnapping thing, but I have to admit, the timing couldn't be better."
"What exactly do you have in mind?"
"We don't know much about you guys. Up until not so long ago we had no idea that there is some weird guy that can't stay properly dead but would like to make all the normal people dead. But with me here and that woman there, you want it or not, the information is spreading."
Minerva let a thin smile to spread over her lips. "I don't think," she said slowly. "That this is a thing we would call a good one. But I understand your viewpoint."
Minerva tried to steer the conversation so she could learn something more about the young man or the other exorcists, but he was clever enough to avoid most of her traps.
"So?" Sirius jogged towards her as soon as she finished the talk and Suguro was away enough to not hear him. "How bad was it?"
"Bad?" Minerva blinked, not understanding. "It was a perfectly fine conversation."
"Huh," Sirius furrowed his brow in confusion. "That's odd."
"How come?"
"Well, Molly tried to talk to him, you know her, fretting over everybody... it ended up nasty. Really, really nasty. Like me and Snive... Snape sort of nasty."
"That's surprising," Minerva raised her eyebrows slightly. "He might be a bit rough on the edges, but besides that..."
Besides that, she found herself liking him. Being a bit jealous for his teachers too.
xxx
While Suguro was talking with McGonagall, the now–illegal carpet was discarded and the adults started the clean up in the library, that took the worst hit during the fight, not wanting to let kids wander around cursed and dark books.
Sometime during that Tonks showed up once again, looking around with suspicion on her face, since the umbrella stand she was always tripping over wasn't in its usual place. Sirius quickly explained to her what had happened while she was dying from boredom pushing papers at the Ministry. Then she grabbed Moody and demanded the rest of the story.
Alastor was just finishing, when the exorcist himself approached them.
"What?" he asked. "Found some new weird thing creeping around?"
"Actually..." Ryuji started slowly. "I think you could help me with something."
"And what that something is?" the old Auror raised his eyebrows.
"I want you to curse me, I'm curious how does that feels," he said in a matter of a fact voice.
"You want me to what?" Alastor blinked, not sure if he was more baffled or just surprised by the whole idea.
"You guys are quite certain that the merry terrorist group of yours is going to attack normal people sooner or later," the exorcist pointed out in a dry voice.
"We are actually confused why aren't they started already," Moody admitted.
"So it's pretty logical, isn't it?" Suguro continued. "Learning how these feels in safe environment is much more logical course of action than just wandering around and hoping for the best."
"So you decided that getting cursed is the best idea ever?" Moody snorted. "Kid, you do know that this is illegal, right?"
"Like that was an issue when you decided to kidnap me," Suguro returned the smirk.
"Smartass."
"Anyhow, the experience would be useful even if I end up far away from that conflict of yours," Ryuji continued. "I still would be capable of identifying the cause if somebody come to me with an odd problem to solve."
"And you think a dark wizard would just throw childish jinxes around instead of some deadly curse?" Alastor snorted.
"Even you people seem to have a rather low opinion on humans without magic," Ryuji slightly raised eyebrows. "So I think an amusing curse to show off how funny these low-lives are would be just the thing."
"Well," Tonks started slowly, poking her own cheek with a tip of her wand. "To tell the truth that exactly what happened during the tournament last year, right? Nobody killed, just bunch of people hanging in the air. Just like that."
With a smirk, she pointed her wand at Suguro and waved it, murmuring something under her breathe.
Suddenly he felt like something yanked him by the ankles, hard.
The feeling was really odd and it got even stranger when his brain finally decided that there really was nothing holding him.
While Suguro's brain was being weirded out by the situation, his body acted on its own. As soon as the invisible force flipped him over and began to raise him in the air, he grabbed the nearest object to stop the movement. It wasn't working and the ground was still getting further, so his arms did the second best thing. They threw. And they just happened to hold onto a chair.
Tonks shrieked and dropped on the floor just a split second before the heavy, wooden chair smashed into a wall just where she stood a moment ago. The witch covered her head, to shield it from the rain of bits and pieces of broken wood; the force was enough to break one of the legs. Doing so, she lost the control of the spell and Suguro was freed. He landed graciously and rolled over, immediately standing up.
"That was interesting," he said.
"Did you just threw a chair at me?!" Tonks cried, looking up at him.
"Sorry," he gave a small shrug and a smile. "You should've warned me before doing that."
"You don't seem to be too winded up about it," she murmured angrily, slowly standing up, and then trying to shake of all the splinters from her robes.
"It's not the first time something grabbed me," Suguro said. "But it was the first time I couldn't kick it in the face."
"It was pretty close, if you ask me!"
"And it was your fault," Moody smirked. "Shouldn't have announced it."
"Then you would be the once smacked with a chair," Tonks rolled her eyes.
"He could try," Alastor commented dryly.
"He did beat you up with a broom."
"And that's the reason I'm going to show him all kind of curses one can throw at others for fun!"
"You just want a satisfaction, right?" Suguro chuckled.
"It was a lucky shot, brat. One that wouldn't be repeated."
Ryuji raised eyebrows. "Is this some kind of a dare?"
"You might be one tough little shit, but I have more years of active duty under my belt that you have ever lived!"
"And only one leg," Sguro smiled.
"Asshole," Moody smiled back.
Tonks looked slowly at the one, then her gaze travelled towards the other. Then, even slowed, she backed away down the corridor, to hide behind her cousin.
"It's just me, or they decided to be friends?" she murmured quietly, not wanting to be heard by nobody but Sirius.
"Dunno," he whispered back. "But they are creeping me out!"
xxx
Fred blinked, trying to remember why he was feeling like he was feeling right now. One of the candy experiments went awry? He wandered somewhere he wasn't supposed to, because he was trying to catch a creature or two without his mom knowing about it?
But no, that definitely wasn't the ceiling at Grimmauld Place. Way too pretty and way too white. And there was a Muggle lamp on it. The lamp was really fascinating and he would love to look at it some more, but gaping at the light sources when his head already was trying him wasn't the best idea.
Fred groaned and turned his head to the side, trying to guess where he was and how he ended up there.
And why he was feeling warm and cold at the same time.
At least he was lying in bed, with comfortable pillow under his head. Apparently, there was also a needle going right inside his arm. There was also a thin, transparent tube connected to it and a bag with some sort of fluid inside.
" What the...?!"
"Oh, you have woken up!" somebody said brightly, like there wasn't anything wrong with teenagers with needles inside their bodies. "How are you feeling?"
"No offense, but crappy," Fred murmured, trying to be careful. Sick or not, the Statue of Secrecy was still binding him to keeping all sort of secrets from the Muggles. And the man by his bedside definitely was one. He was wearing long, white cloak, with similar sort-of-heart-shaped thing attached to it Suguro had in his bag, along with these brilliant business management books.
"Do you remember what happened to you?"
"Uh..." he frowned slightly. It was really hard to forget something like that. "I think something was trying to eat me?"
The man snorted and shook his head, clearly amused by this poor choice of a joke. "Close enough," he agreed.
"Now, I need to check out how are you," the doctor said, pulling out a small notebook and a pen out of his pocket. "To do that, I'm going to start with asking you few questions. Is that okay with you?"
"Um..." he murmured, unsure how actually he was supposed to tell this muggle doctor that he really wasn't supposed to tell him a thing. Especially about the while incident, since it took place in a rather magical spot.
The doctor noticed his discomfort and just smiled, hiding the notebook back in his pocket. "Are you going to feel more comfortable if somebody fetch your mother here?"
"Mom's here?" Fred blinked, surprised.
"She brought you here," the muggle doctor nodded.
"Oh. Yeah, that's a good idea."
"Then just wait a minute, okay?"
Fred nodded and the doctor walked away.
That gave him a little bit time to think. He wasn't sure about what exactly he was supposed to think, and his head wasn't helping, throbbing uncomfortably, but still. He was in completely different world now, the one he didn't know thing about. Because dad, no matter how enthusiastic he was about his little hobby, didn't seem to be very reliable. Luckily, it didn't took a lot of time for the doctor to return with mom following him in hurry. There was another man tagging along, but Fred didn't pay attention to him.
Same did Molly, her mind completely occupied with finally seeing her child alive. Besides, after all time that passed on mind–numbing waiting she was quite used to the man following her like a shadow.
"Hi, mom!" Fred smiled weakly from the bed. He still looked very pale and had dark ring under his eyes, but his eyes were no longer shining with fever.
"Sweet Merlin, sweetie!" she gasped beating the distance between the entrance and his bed in record time. "How are you feeling?"
"Honestly?" The boy grimaced. "Like a dungbomb that lied the whole year all the way down in some corner of my school trunk."
"Don't worry, honey!" she said. "You are still so bandaged up, but just wait for me to get my wand back and put you all together!"
"Uh, no, no putting him together in an instant!" O'Callaghann immediately protested.
"Why?" Molly furrowed her brow looking back at him. "He clearly is still hurting. Why do you want for him to suffer?!"
"Before you call me an evil bastard, you need to understand something," the exorcist sighed heavily. "We do know what we are doing. We were doing that for centuries and are still reinventing the process, making it more efficient, safe and painless."
"And I can make it all disappear in a matter of seconds!"
"Yes and sealing all the nasty stuff we're slowly taking out of him inside his body. Great idea. Can't see how that could go wrong!"
"I... I don't understand," she admitted.
"It's like..." Joseph scratched his chin, looking for the right words. "Like doing laundry. You're a housewife, you definitely have a precious dress or blouse you have to actually wash by hand, because anything else would destroy it, right?"
"Yes," Molly nodded, blushing slightly. "I have something like that."
"We are doing exactly the same thing here," he continued to explain. "Healing it all immediately would seal the poison in his veins, while forcing it out all at once would lead to a state of shock. Neither one is good, so we're just taking it slowly. It might be more uncomfortable, but it's also the safest way to do it."
"Isn't keeping poison inside a bad thing?" Fred decided to butt in the conversation, since it was about him. He also had quite a lot of practice of being poisoned, since he and George were testing all their funny candies on themselves. Usually the best way to feel better after getting sick was to get sick all over the place just to get all the nasty stuff out as soon as possible.
"Usually, yes but... trust me on that, we tried the faster way - did the blood dialysis and whatsnot - and the results were..." Joseph grimaced. "Not pleasant."
"Dialysis?"
The man winkled his nose. "I think you don't really want to know about that."
"Mom, I'm going to be fine," Fred grinned. "And I think dad is going to be so jealous!"
"Of course he is," she rolled her eyes.
The doctor coughed, deciding to speak for the first time. Up until now, he was occupied with changing the bandages and looking at the wounds. "It's going to take about a week for you to be up and kicking again. But in two or three days, if you'll be feeling good enough, somebody would talk you through the basics."
"Basics?" Molly blinked. "Basics of what?"
"The wounds received from ghouls and any other demons are much more than just cut flesh," Joseph explained. "They create a connection between a man and the side of the world that stays invisible."
"Oh," she blinked. "He... told us, about how it supposed to work. That seeing things. Well, to tell the truth he was explaining it to my daughter. She was affected too, you see. Never told us a word!"
"That's a pretty usual situation," he said. "People don't like to admit such things. They don't want to sound crazy."
"I wouldn't…!"
"Maybe not," the man just shrugged. "But you would start looking for some answers about what was going on with her, wouldn't you?"
Molly slowly nodded and he continued. "Considering the fact that you people don't like to look for thing in our world, you would probably ask doctors and researchers in your world. And they would come up with that answer, since it is so plausible."
Fred grimaced. "That makes too much sense for me. But hey, if this is the case, then maybe in St. Mungo some people are actually like me and Gin? And that funny Loony girl, she sees weird stuff all the time."
"This might be a possibility," Joseph nodded. "We usually have priests checking out psychiatric wards and other places from time to time, just to be safe. Though, some people prefer to stick with being crazy."
Fred could guess why pretty well. These things were freaky and it would be just easier to talk yourself into them being just some sort of a boogieman than the real deal. Seeing them all the time… he hoped that he would get used to them soon enough, because the disconnecting feeling that haunted him every single time he saw something with the corner of his eye – and then turned his head just to see the thing really floating there – was really awful.
xxx
"Shouldn't you be more... I don't know, stressed up?" Ginny asked. "These things almost killed you!"
"Wouldn't be the first time," Suguro just shrugged it off, like all the other disturbing things.
Only two days had passed since the ghouls attacked. Surprisingly enough, the relationship between the exorcist and everybody else – maybe excluding her dad, who was worrying about Fred and Snape, who just hated everyone – got better. She and Harry were helping with drawing the seals that were going to keep spirits away and even Hermione and Ron joined in, glad that they could finally do something important. Suguro was mostly supervising them and correcting the mistakes and sometimes shooing overly enthusiastic Sirius away from the chalk.
"Excuse me?" Hermione raised her head from over a very complicated sigil she was trying to copy from the book.
"It's pretty much how being an exorcist looks like," he explained. "You almost end up dead every few days."
"That doesn't sound like a good career choice," Ginny snickered.
Suguro grinned back.
Since the adults get a proof that the evil spirits indeed exist and exorcising them was possible, they stopped bugging him every five minutes about the illusionary trick he supposedly pulled on Harry. Besides, he got the chance to beat at least part of his frustration away, so he was much less pissed off than during the previous days. Or maybe just tired. The seals were complicated and the house ridiculously huge, with a lot of ways to get inside.
"It is interesting."
"And dead set of tearing you apart," Ginny shot back.
"That's one of the reasons," he said. "Seriously though, usually you know exactly what are you going to face and when. I just have a weird luck."
"I can sympathize," Harry grimaced. "But I would pay you real money just to keep me away from all that mess. Boredom, that's all I want from life."
Ron patted him on the back. "You're going to get plenty, after we're done with this stuff."
Then, the front doors broke in a huge ball of blue fire and fell down onto the floor with a loud thud.