Chapter Five.

Notes: Just a quick little thing to Ranger Mitsuki, I realized belatedly that my reply might have sounded mean. I DIDN'T MEAN IT TO. It's so hard to convey things on the internet sometimes D: I just wanted to apologize to you if you read it that way. I hate sounding mean to people! And I especially wouldn't want to be mean to my readers!

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Had a black hole just dropped from the enchanted ceiling into their midst? Perhaps a hog had found its way inside the hall, or someone had made one hundred copies of Ron Weasley and placed them at the Slytherin table as a prank. No, it wasn't any of those things, though if they hadn't seen for themselves, they might think that one of those things had happened. No, what they were seeing was just one person, and that one person's name was Allen Walker.

The world's most food consuming creature was one single parasitic General class exorcist, and even though he was in the company of hundreds of other people, he immediately vacuumed all nearby plates into his mouth with a surprising amount of speed and grace. Not even Masa, a fellow parasitic type, could get that much food into his stomach. Allen Walker was on a level of his own, apart from any living creature, exorcist or animal.

Students spent half their meal watching the hooded transfer as he ate in morbid curiosity, nearly forgetting their own completely. Nobody expected that he would have any room for dessert, and yet as the main course changed into the endless assortment of sweets, he continued without missing a beat.

"You're attracting quite a bit of attention, Walker—"

"Allen!" he interrupted before shoving a piece of cake into his mouth.

"Fine! Allen, you should slow down just a bit. The others won't have anything left to eat if you continue at this rate," Masa reasoned. Allen stopped completely and stared at the people around him… or well, sort of around him. Most had scooted away as far as they could, staring at or ignoring completely the monster before them.

"Sohwy," Allen said through his mouthful, swallowing and giving a sheepish look to his neighbors. Shortly afterwards, the tables cleared and the Headmaster rose again to dismiss them. Allen was looking sadly at the empty plates, but Masa had seen him stuff a few things in his uniform before they had gone, almost as if the boy had known they would vanish just then. He wouldn't be surprised if the small General had known, if there was one thing he knew it was food.

The rest of the table was already standing to leave, and Masa decided to follow them. Turning to his superior, he said, "I'm sure you can fair on your own getting everyone their things. When I find out where we're staying, I'll come back to wait for you." It was best if they weren't stumbling around looking for their rooms until morning. He knew Lavi would have no problem finding his—and even if he didn't he would have a ball exploring the castle. Lenalee wouldn't be too proud to ask for help and Kanda? …Well Kanda might be the only problem, but that wasn't any of Masa's concern.

"Okay, see you later then," Allen responded cheerfully, rounding up the other three exorcists and leading them in the direction of the kind looking Headmaster to inform him of their goings-on.

It wasn't moments after that that they were leaving the Great Hall, branching off quietly from the mass of students out the front door.

Allen could feel them almost immediately, and he almost ran all the way to the forest.

Lavi would later tell him he actually did run, and the only reason he didn't seem to know is that the other three had no problems keeping up and Allen seemed to be focused on the dementors that seemed to be following them. Allen however, didn't want to fall apart again. The last thing he needed was to give Kanda ammunition against him.

As they were safely entering the Arc, Masa was in the dungeons. His face was the usual impassive, but on the inside he was slightly irritated. Of all the places they had to end up, it would be underground in the ridiculously chilly dungeons. He wanted to blame Allen for this, but it was his own decision to join the house of snakes in order to remain by his side. Stupid decision. Should have went with the lions.

Even so, Masa didn't regret it really. This way, Allen wouldn't get lost.

"Customers, so late at night? Oh! You're back! 11" birch, phoenix tail feather core," the old man Ollivander recited proudly. Allen gave him an odd look, but didn't say anything about it.

"Ah, yes. My friends need wands as well," he said, stepping aside for Ollivander to inspect the other three.

"Right, right. Well one of you step forward so I can start measuring and we'll have you all fitted in no time."

But in reality, "no time" ended up being hours. Lenalee was rather patient, though every time one of the wands reacted badly, she looked rather devastated. Like Allen had before her, she apologized profusely whenever something broke or was thrown in disarray, but Ollivander waved her off like it was nothing. After quite a while, she found herself holding a 13 ½" ash wood wand with a unicorn tail hair core. Mere seconds after the rather long wand had been placed in her grip, violet sparks shot out of the end. Lavi looked like he wanted to make a smart comment—one no one was sure to appreciate, as his eyes glittered with mischief—but Allen knocked him in the stomach with his elbow.

Lenalee stepped back and Lavi instantly stepped forward. "I wonder how wands work. Do they channel the magic of the one using it? Do they create their own magic? Is it a combination of both? How do they work for us? Does it have something to do with the innoce–"

"Baka Usagi! Just shut up and find your damn stick!" Lenalee and Allen cringed a bit, but were rather grateful of Kanda's intervention. When Lavi got going, he never seemed to quit. After that, things went rather smoothly. Lavi did ask a stray question here or there, but he didn't bombard the poor man and in the end, he had himself a 12" Hazel wood wand with a Dragon Heartstring core. He smiled victoriously at the red sparks that flew out of his wand and stepped back.

Kanda. Last but not least, the samurai stepped forward, eyes narrowed at the flying tape measure but not stopping it from its duty. As it begin measuring a slight bit lower, he nearly sliced it in half with Mugen, but the thing seemed to know as it flew away into the corner and began to quiver. He merely che'd, but Allen knew he was feeling a bit smug.

Kanda looked like he wanted to murder the old man. Wand after wand rejected him, like his comrades before him, but it was already getting late, he was tired, and it was ten times more annoying to have sticks placed and taken from your hand before you can do anything when it was you and not someone else.

"That's the one! I knew this would be the one for you!" Ollivander said at last.

"If you knew, why didn't you give it to me in the first place," Kanda replied grumpily, brandishing the 12 ½" hawthorn wand with dragon heartstring core as it shot out deep blue fireworks. He stowed the thing inside his coat and placed his hand back on Mugen, as if trying to return to what was comfortable to him. A silly stick could not ever replace his faithful sword. His innocence had chosen him first. It had seniority.

Meanwhile, Masa had long since been outside the Arc, waiting for the return of his comrades. The door had been left open, most likely in case the smaller boy wanted to join them, however he did not really like the man Ollivander, and so he instead found himself lying in the grass outside of the bright diamonds. He could feel the eerie cold of the dementors, but they seemed to be leaving him alone for the time being.

He didn't care either way. If they approached him, he would just kill them. That's what he was best at. At some point in his waiting—hours seemed to be going by as he stared blankly at the dark trees that towered above him—the dog from before had joined him. It kept giving him odd looks…odd human looks, as if to ask if he were crazy for lying out in the Forbidden Forest at night. Maybe he was, but he hadn't seen any dangerous creatures, and the only ones he felt nearby were the ever present ghoulish fiends that made his General so defenseless on the train.

He couldn't help but wonder about that. He hadn't had the time yet to ask Allen what had happened. Indeed, he had felt the overwhelming disparity that the weird creature brought about, but it had not impaired him. Allen, however, nearly collapsed. He must have felt something terrible, for he knew that Allen was much stronger than himself, and many of the other exorcists.

The dog nudged his face with a cold, wet nose. Why wasn't he moving? He wasn't dead, but he was staring up at the unseen sky with a lost look in his eyes. The dog looked up, too. There was nothing there, though. Not even a stray owl graced a single tree branch. The night was empty, quieter than normal. The dog didn't like it.

He growled at the boy's side, and finally his attention shifted to his companion.

"You seem to be a rather mysterious creature. You aren't someone's pet, are you?" he asked the dog. He received a bark in response, and the dog shook its head. Masa began to wonder if he wasn't crazy. The dog had run away when the others came back, so they never saw him. Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him? A human-like dog didn't seem normal to him, even in this abnormal world of wizards.

Whatever. He didn't really care so much, he decided as he rubbed the dog's ears. It may have been a little mangy, but that didn't matter so much to him.

His eyes flashed several times. Red, brown, red, brown, red, brown. The dog looked on in confusion as Masa looked up at the trees again. Dementors were passing overhead, and he distinctly thought he saw the dog shiver, but they didn't stop. He thanked whatever God looked over them, for he was honestly too tired to deal with Akuma—even if these ugly creatures weren't really Akuma, they were close enough to be similarly classified.

The Arc door began to open again, and he heard the voices of his fellows once more. The dog, once again, ran off in another direction before he could be seen. Lavi was the first to speak once they exited the structure.

"I bet my wand is bigger than yours, Masa!" he said, waving the stick in his face. An eyeroll later and a scolding from Lenalee, Lavi began talking cheerily to Masa about things he didn't care about as they made their way back to the castle.

It was going to be a long year. And he already had a bad feeling about tomorrow morning.

~*~B-R-E-A-K~*~

And so it proved to be. Masa woke with a yawn the next morning in the Slytherin 3rd year rooms. He glanced over at the bed nearest his, and noted that Allen was still asleep. In fact, most of the room was still asleep. The one other person awake in the room was a thin brown haired boy, one Masa was unfamiliar with—which truly wasn't a surprising thing, Masa only knew the snooty blonde's name was Draco Malfoy…and that was because he wanted to remember to avoid him. The unidentified male was sitting, fully dressed for the day, on his own bed nearest the far wall. He didn't seem to be aware, as he continued to stare blankly at the stone before him.

Masa stood to get dressed as well, and even his sudden movements did not stir the other boy from whatever he was doing. After he finished dressing, he went about waking up Allen. This was easier said than done.

"What to you waaaaant?" came the whining response as Masa shook his General's shoulder.

"Breakfast," he said simply, and it didn't take much more than that single word to get Allen up and out of bed. Masa stowed away this knowledge for later, it could come in handy for waking Allen in the future. For now, he waited patiently as the other got dressed. It wasn't until he and Allen were about to leave that Masa noticed that the un-named boy from before had already left. How hadn't he noticed?

Oh well. It didn't bother him much as he led the way down to the Great Hall. The enticing smells of bacon, eggs, and various other breakfast foods wafted into the hallway, and Allen was immediately rushing his way to the table.

They were early, he noted, but he didn't really care to scold Masa at the moment for making him wake up so much earlier than needed as he was already digging into every plate he could get his hands on. Masa briefly felt that the other Slytherins would regret not coming early as well, as he watched the white haired boy scarf down his food.

Masa adjusted his school robes, letting them hang uselessly off his shoulders. He had almost tossed the tie in the trash. He didn't really like formal wear all that much. Allen, however, fit the uniform type perfectly. The green colors of their house looked quite natural on him, and everything else wasn't that much of a stretch from the clothes he usually wore other than the exorcist uniform.

He picked up a few things hurriedly before Allen could take everything within arms reach, and ate them slowly as he scanned the Hall. Quite a few Ravenclaws were already sitting at their table, books in hand as they studied for classes that hadn't even been handed out yet. Lavi was there as well, trying to chat up a seventh year girl who looked none-too-pleased that he was distracting her from her book. One table over, Lenalee was smiling to another girl at the Hufflepuff table. She gave Masa a wave when she noticed his gaze was on her, and he quickly moved on to the Gryffindors. Kanda was, not surprisingly, up as well. He was the kind of person to get up and meditate early before people disturbed him. Masa wouldn't be surprised if that was what he had done. He currently was ignoring the girl next to him that seemed intent on getting his attention. Poor thing.

People filtered in slowly, but steadily, and soon, almost everyone was sitting around and eating before their first day back at Hogwarts. Allen didn't seem to be aware at all the stares he was getting now that he was hoodless. Whispers of "who's that?" and "was he one of the transfers?" passed over his head completely. The gossipers themselves got their answers just by looking at the way he ate. He was definitely the same boy as yesterday. Once again he took it upon himself to slow the boy down. He needed to find out where the kitchens were soon; this could be the death of his sanity if he didn't.

Schedules were soon passed out, and Masa and Allen found themselves looking down at their identical papers.

"Double potions with the Gryffindors again this year. How fantastic," Draco Malfoy said, sarcasm dripping like poison from his lips.

"What's so bad about that?" Allen wondered aloud, catching the blonde's attention.

"They're all filthy, self-righteous blood-traitors over there. If I were you, I would steer clear of them. They might rub off," he said, turning his nose up as if to say 'duh' at such a stupid question. Allen turned to his apprentice and shrugged. He thought the three from the train were nice enough (excluding the incident when the extra two joined them and they became exorcist sandwiches) and Kanda…well they didn't need to worry so much about him. He probably wouldn't want to associate with Allen anyways.

"Well either way, we need to go in for testing or something. To assess our knowledge? …I just hope all that studying we did after we got our books will help," Allen said with a sigh, "That and all the endless hours Komui spent drilling information into our brains. I swear if I ever hear him tell me I'm saying a spell wrong again, I will go mad." Masa cringed in remembrance of those weeks they had to spend studying. They had been given only three to cram as much as they could. Talk about a last minute mission.

Masa excelled at Potions, as he had found out when they were studying with the science department. He spent a lot of time with Reever or Johnny, and avoided Komui as much as he possibly could. Allen, however, wasn't as lucky. Komui stuck to him and Lenalee like glue.

Unfortunately, they couldn't get as much as they would have liked done. They couldn't cast a single spell and could only learn the incantations and movements needed. Allen seemed most interested in Transfiguration and Care of Magical Creatures, but couldn't be sure he would be any good at either since he hadn't gotten any practice with it yet.

Soon they found themselves sitting with Lavi, Lenalee, and Kanda in a testing room with Professor McGonagall. She didn't seem too bothered to be there, and soon, the testing began. Well into the morning the went, until finally, they wandered out into the hallway. Morning classes weren't completely over yet as they waited in the empty hall for McGonagall to give them their updated schedule.

Classes had been added, and numbers accompanied them. Allen decided to ask about it.

"The numbers are the year that you will be studying with," she clarified. With a sigh of relief, he looked over at Masa's paper to make sure they were the same—and they were. They had both managed to test into the average 3rd year classes, as they had intended. Lenalee looked happy as well, and explained that the only class she had with them would be History of Magic. It was hard to remember an entirely new History on top of the two you were already juggling—the normal one, and the one that only the exorcists seemed to know. Lenalee's other classes were all fourth year, as that was the year she was posing as.

Lavi, not surprisingly, was in entirely 6th year classes. Allen had a feeling he'd probably done a lot better than year 6, but as he that was the year that Komui had decided for him, he would have to deal with it. Kanda on the other hand, looked miffed. He as well was supposed to be in entirely 6th year classes, but as Masa looked over his shoulder, he realized that this was not the case.

"He's in our year's Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts," the smallest boy said blandly, as if he wasn't just revealing something that could potentially get him killed. Allen had to cover his mouth with a hand at the look Kanda was giving his apprentice, and Lavi outright giggled at this turn of events.

Allen almost wished he hadn't held his tongue as they weaved their way through throngs of people towards the Muggle Studies room. The mysterious professor had never appeared at breakfast, and his name wasn't on the schedule. Even so, Allen's mind was still on Kanda, thinking of how the samurai had stalked off to his class without a word to the others. He was getting better at his tendency to threaten people with Mugen—probably a good thing since they were in a school filled with children.

The two Slytherins were almost the only snakes present in the classroom. One other, the nameless boy from this morning, was there as well. They took seats next him in the middle-right of the room, and didn't seem to notice as all the other houses seemed to give the three a wide berth.

"Hey Allen," Masa asked as they waited for their teacher. "Why did…that thing on the train happen?" Allen blinked at him, not lost on the meaning of this question. It was vague, most likely on purpose, but he got the feeling even if he hadn't been, the silent boy beside them wouldn't care.

"Ah…those things," he started, wondering how he could say it so that Masa could understand, "they look like the souls trapped inside Akuma. It's like they never had a vessel to begin with. I could…feel the pain inside those things. I don't know if its from the souls they ate, or their own, but it was horrible." Masa grimaced, and decided not to press the subject any further. Allen seemed content with this as the class finally seemed to be all there—except for their teacher.

A few minutes passed and people began to whisper. Where was he? Class was supposed to have started already and he still wasn't there. What if he didn't show up?

But this line of thought was quickly thrown out when the door opened with a loud bang! and in stepped their teacher. Allen thought he heard Masa garble out some mangled Japanese-meets-Italian sentence that probably would have made no sense even if he could fluently speak either of them. However, he was just as surprised at the man standing before him.

"Hello, brats. I'll be your Muggle Studies professor this year."

So, this chapter isn't so great. I threw a LOT in there that I never intended to have, and so the quality is rather poor. It IS longer than usual, however, so there is that. Also, I didn't give the name of the teacher, but I think its obvious enough right? I had originally intended to make someone else the teacher, but then you guys were all like "I hope it's him!" …so I changed my mind. I DO IT ALL FOR YOU. Hahh..

All that testing stuff.. I literally came up with it as I was writing it, if you couldn't tell. I realized a little belatedly that I would need to have them in classes that would be suitable to their needs and not just their ages (which I manipulated anyways, seeing as I put them all in years that didn't correspond with their ages XD)

And to end this long author's note.. I was thinking about getting a beta. If anyone's interested, drop me a line. I'm too lazy to edit things, I often forget what I've already written and end up completely inconsistent, and plenty of other things.

Anyways. Until next time!