CHAPTER 33 - UNEXPECTED, part I.

The morning Light felt quite encouraged. Making his decision about how to perceive the whole situation mentally helped him. He was more balanced and above things than he was in the last three days. He made his way through the corridors and didn't even feel all the eyes that were on him. He held his head high and headed to breakfast, with the intention to ignore everyone and everything who was not part of his plan. But this strategy was quickly ruined when Misa appeared out of nowhere and dragged him to the table with her. To his surprise, she hadn't headed to her usual place, but to the table where Light's little sister sat, together with all their group. Before he knew how it happened, he was sitting there with them, next to Misa, who was still holding him in place, while chatting with Mello who was at her other side. The rest of the group, who sat opposite them, seemed as confused as he was.

Misa was talking and explaining how tough it was to be a substitute teacher. She occasionally made an attempt to draw Light into discussion but he didn't react much. He decided just to eat and get out of there as soon as possible. He was feeling well but not well enough to sit through Misa's, Mello's and Sayu's rattling in the morning.

Luckily he was soon saved by morning owls who brought the post. Light got the newest copy of the Daily Prophet, as he did every morning. He noticed that Near, Matt and Mello also got their copies, while Sayu got a letter. Probably from their mother. Misa didn't get anything, so she leaned her head on Mello's shoulder and looked into his copy of the news. Light raised an eyebrow when he noticed this strange display of affection but didn't comment on it. Misa had a strange habit of clinging onto people anyway.

He turned his attention to his newspaper and his face immediately darkened. If he thought that things were getting a little better that morning, he was mistaken. Because the headline in Prophet… was about him:

"Scandal at Hogwarts! Harassment towards an omega student!"

Light pursed his lips and quickly looked at his companions. Sayu was in sweet oblivion but the boys were all reading it with rapture. Even Misa had her eyes focused on the text and her eyes seemed wider than usual. Light clenched the newspaper in his hands and started reading:

"The Daily Prophet repeatedly informed about doubtful methods of the newest member of Hogwarts teacher's staff, professor of Defence against Dark arts, Auror L Lawliet. As we wrote in the past, Lawliet, who has a problematic reputation because of the methods he used in his past investigations, cancelled the theoretical classes of Defence against Dark arts and acted biassed towards some students. But what the Auror has done now is unprecedented. Our sources in Hogwarts say that Lawliet teaches private classes to a certain omega student who was only two days ago assessed with 320 house points. The amount of points which the school house usually gains for the whole school year.

That opens a logical question, "What did the poor omega had to do, to be appreciated this way?"

We will not run into details on possibilities, we believe that the readers can make a picture themselves. The poor omega was probably forced into things they never wanted to do and got promised a house points in return. What scandalous behaviour from a person who has the power to influence children. Our readers surely will agree that a person like Lawliet, who drives his students into a corner should not be teaching at Hogwarts. I call upon all the parents and friends of the school to help us to get rid of this teacher without morals. The innocence of our children must be preserved at all costs. We can only hope to rip the poor omega out of Lawliet's claws.

I assure you, that if this young person comes to the Daily Prophet to ask for help, they will be welcomed with open arms and their anonymity preserved, as we are preserving it now. We are here to help them and we will make sure to free Hogwarts from this perverse aggressor.

Written by: Akane Takada

While reading the article, Light started seeing red. He felt the eyes in the hall turning towards him and burning holes into his being. He held the newspaper so tightly that his knuckles were turning white and he could literally feel the magical power accumulating inside him. When he finished reading he knew he was about to explode. That he was going to do something bad and he didn't really care what anymore. He just wanted everyone to hurt as much as he did.

As the things on the table started shaking slightly, he even felt a smirk appearing on his face. But then, he heard a powerful male voice roaring next to him:

"WHAT?! WHAT A PIECE BULLSHIT! HOW CAN SHE WRITE SOMETHING LIKE THAT?! SINCE WHEN IS THE DAILY PROPHET A TABLOID MAGAZINE?!"

And just like that, the moment was broken.

The extreme surge of emotions surprised Light so much that he fell down from the anger high, completely startled. He was looking at Mello, who was red with anger and spitting insults everywhere around. He was causing quite a scene in the hall and everyone who was looking at Light mere seconds ago, were now watching Mello with baffled expressions. Even Misa seemed surprised.

"What the actual fuck?! This is what she calls journalism?! Such a pile of bullshit!" Mello still continued the shower of ugly words and drew attention from a few professors, who just got their hands on the copy of The Daily Prophet. The headmaster was about to intervene and say something to calm Mello down, but the blonde couldn't hear or see anything. He was completely blinded with rage. He just got up from his bench and yelled: "TAKADA?! WHERE THE FUCK IS TAKADA?!"

Everyone in the room turned their attention towards the Slytherin table and when Mello found her in the crowd he took bee-line towards her. Both Misa and Matt run after him in hope of calming him down. But they were completely ignored.

"What the hell did you tell your mother Takada?!" Mello yelled when he got closer but Kiyomi seemed as collected as ever. Even when all the school was looking at her and Mello seemed about ready to curse her on the spot.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." She said and took a sip of her tea.

"Like hell ya don't! You've seen The Prophet! This is all yours doing!" Mello yelled and ignored the voice of the headmaster, who was distinctly telling him to calm down and go back to his seat. Kiyomi could have chosen to ignore the blonde and wait until someone would remove him from the spot, but for some reason, she decided to answer him:

"My mother is in the school's counsel, it is only natural that she knows about everything that happens in Hogwarts. And Lawliet's actions speak for themselves. I didn't have to tell her anything."

"His actions?! His act… OH FOR FUCK SAKE TAKADA! This school finally has a solid DADA teacher! After years of good for nothing imitations! Now they will force him to step down! Because of you!"

There was a collective gasp of surprise and exasperation in the hall. All the students, who were dead silent until now, started speaking over one another. They've just realised that this might lead to them losing their favourite teacher.

"Now calm down everyone, this situation…" The headmaster headed through the hall towards Mello but it was surprisingly Takada who stood up and spoke over him this time: "Let him step down! What he is doing is unprofessional! He brought nothing but problems to this school! I'll be glad to see him leave!"

Mello reached out for his wand: "You little…" but whatever he wanted to say, he didn't finish because he was struck by the freezing spell and therefore froze in place above Kiyomi.

"That would be enough…" the headmaster Ruvie said and everyone finally looked at him. It was surprising to see him using magic outside of official ceremonies. Sometimes students even joked that he was a muggle. He had his papers and counsels, but seeing him with a wand in his hand was a special occasion.

"Everyone back to your breakfasts and then go to your classrooms." The headmaster said and was about to add something when Matt suddenly cut him off with a surprisingly loud voice:

"You can't leave it like this! You know L wouldn't do something like that!"

That surprised the headmaster to the point that he opened and closed his mouth. There was a moment of silence, when everyone was looking at Matt. The boy was probably never ever noticed by so many people before. He quickly realised what he had done because after a moment he shifted his eyes to the ground. Luckily, it only took that long for Roger to react. He made a few steps closer to frozen Mello and Matt who was by his side and leaned forward with a hard frown:

"The content of the said article will be re-examined and discussed with all sides. I don't want to see you…" he was looking straight into Matt's eyes and then shifted to frozen Mello: "...any of you taking the situation into your own hands and trying to solve it! Is that clear?!"

Matt nodded and turned his eyes to the floor again. Mello couldn't react but he heard Roger well enough.

"Good…" the headmaster said and straightened his spine. "As for your behaviour Mello…" he started speaking again, focusing on the blonde who was frozen over Takada with a wand in his hand: "It was completely unacceptable and if I will ever see you aiming your wand against another student again, I'll make sure you'll never find a job anywhere in the whole wizarding world!"

At that, Matt took a half step back and everyone in the hall froze in their moves. If there was a collective description for the feelings of all the students at that moment, it would be something like: "Damn, that old skeleton can be scary…"

However, the old skeleton was not done yet: "I will let you think about your behaviour for a few hours now."

With that, he turned on his heel and left the hall, leaving the frozen blonde behind.

L didn't stay long in the assembly room after he learnt that there were no Animagi wizards in Hogwarts for the past few years. There was nothing more the League wanted to tell him and he needed to think this information through. On one hand they've done a huge favour to his investigation by doing this because now he knew he was on the right track. But on the other hand they also indirectly caused death of the last seven murdered pairs. It was a lot of thinking to go through and L needed his case files to confirm his new hypothesis.

When he got out of the room there was no werewolf waiting for him and to his surprise it was still dark outside. He was sure that the sun should have risen by that time. L walked out of the house and wanted to portkey himself home but his wand's portkey treat didn't work there. He had to get out of there on foot. He wouldn't mind it that much, if it wasn't for the fact that his leg started aching again. It surprised him a bit, because for the last few days at Hogwarts, he forgot he had any injury at all. On his way through the large darkened meadows he had to stop a few times to put Watari's lotion on it. Even then, the pain hasn't subsided. The opposite, it felt like it was getting worse.

It took L hours to get out of the magical shield that hid the area from the outside world. He could literally feel going through the barrier and stepped out into the daylight. When he turned around, the darkened landscape behind him was slowly changing into a forest permeated by sun beams, until the original landscape disappeared completely.

L raised an eyebrow. He made a step back in an attempt to return, but there was no magical bariere anymore. No way to step back where he came from.

Interesting… I can leave it without a problem but the way inside is impossible on foot. Maybe the 24 hours long way in wasn't that pointless after all. L thought and reached out to close his coat. It was much colder in the outside world. Some part of that path we took must have been the real combination of portkeys that, if taken in the right order, only lead to that place. L continued thinking while his wand flew out of his pocket and conjured up a location spell. The colourful leaves on the ground around started moving and flew to the space in front of L. There they created a map of England and pinpointed his position by a cone.

L frowned. He was not far from London. He would have to send an investigation team into this area later. He saved the location into his mind and reached out for his wand to portkey himself away.

At that moment he heard a snap.

He abruptly turned around, catching his wand in his hand and found himself facing a middle aged Asian lady. She stood on a narrow forest path and looked as surprised as he was. She quickly put her hands in the air in a gesture of renounce.

L frowned. She was obviously a muggle. He couldn't feel any magic around her and she looked mediocre. Small figure, dark brown hair and eyes. Quite typical eastern features. But something about her was familiar.

He took the wand down immediately: "I'm sorry, maam', I didn't mean to startle you, it's just a stick."

The lady slowly took her hands down and smiled at him warily: "No…no need to apologise, young man…" She said with a heavy eastern accent and her eyes were studying him: "I'm afraid I startled you first."

L smiled back at her widely, to show her he was not a threat and staffed the wand to his back pocket so it was not on display. However the lady already saw it and pursed her lips together before speaking up again: "You don't have to hide your wand. I may be a muggle, but my husband is a Wizard."

L looked at her again. It was quite suspicious to meet a muggle who knew about the Wizarding World so close to a magically hidden place. L's inner alarm immediately went on, but when he was examining her face, he couldn't find any trace of anything suspicious. However, her features… he felt like he knew her.

"Oh… I see. I'm sorry." L said, even when he was not sure what he was apologising for. Something about that lady just had that effect. He cleared his throat: "Do you… ehm… live here?"

The woman nodded and answered calmly: "Yes, only a mile away from here is a village. Did you not come from there?"

"No.. I… I porkeyed here." L lied and saw that the eyes of the woman narrowed.

"Oh… I see." She said and eyed the direction where the forest path led, behind L. He immediately knew he must have done something wrong, because she closed up in a second and started searching for a way out of there.

But what… What did I say? L was asking himself.

"Well, I wish you a good day, Mr. Wizard." She said and headed towards L, to cross him and follow the forest path. L nodded and bowed a little, unsure what else to do, not to startle her even more. But when the lady was only a metre away from him, she stopped with wide eyes: "Oh dear, you are bleeding!" She exclaimed suddenly and L followed her gaze to his leg. Really. His jeans were a bit soaked by something red. The wound must have opened again when he went through the barrier. He was so distracted by what was happening that he didn't even notice.

"It's nothing… just a small cut." He said but when their eyes met again, he knew that she knew he was lying. She was watching him, with worries in her eyes, but it was quickly taking turns with suspicion. L couldn't blame her. His looks were never the one to wake up sympathies. Even more at the moment he must have looked like a stray cat. With his always wild hair, dark bags under his eyes, dark khaki green coat and really dirty, blood stained jeans. He was not usually concerned by his looks, but something about this lady made him want to look… not so dangerously wild?

"You should probably get the wound cleaned…" she said with a voice much softer than before.

"Yes madam, I will. I will portkey myself home immediately. Thank you for your concern." L said and the hard look in her eyes was back.

She only nodded, with her eyes narrow and slowly headed towards the forest path again. But she never showed L her back, she was practically backing away from him until she was behind the tree and disappeared.

L let out a long sigh. He needed to make sure to report this meeting to the Department of Law enforcements. He was sure the lady would and it wouldn't do him any good if this area was searched by police forces, searching for some dark haired wizard. They could have destroyed the evidence for the Kira case without knowing it.

But he felt sorry for the lady. She must have been really afraid of him.

"Do I really look that scary?" He asked his wand, which flew out of his pocket again.

The wand quickly scribbled an inscription to the air: "YES!" And added a smile with a tongue out.

L chuckled: "What else was I expecting from you?" he shook his head in amusement and caught the wand in his hand: "Alright, let's go home."

He waved his wand and the smile on his lips had died. Nothing happened. He waved again. He was still in the forest.

"Oh fuck…"

Light was wandering around the castle most of the morning. He didn't have any classes himself and his first substitute classes were starting at 1 PM. It was good, because he needed the time to think. He didn't really understand what happened in the hall. He felt the magic inside him growing and at the same time he knew it wasn't a good kind of magic. Not like when he got in sync with his inner omega. This was different. It was like there was a dark void inside him and at that moment it was overpowering him. Same as two days ago when he blew up the hourglasses. He felt like he had no control over it and that was scaring him to the core.

Even weirder he found that he didn't blow up in the end. That the roar of Mello threw him back to reality. He couldn't understand how and why. The only logical explanation would be that Mello used an alpha voice, but the blonde hasn't even presented yet. So, that wasn't an option.

In a way, Mello saved him and probably everyone else in the hall without even realising it. Mello, who lost his temper and filtered his negative energy by causing a scene.

The boy must have felt as pissed as Light himself but his anger got an opposite face. While Light was about to burst from the inside, Mello simply lost control and bursted on the outside. That was something Light was unable to do. Apart from that one time in Lawliet's cabinet, he was not used to losing his face. He felt like screaming at Kiyomi but he was so used to being collected that his emotions were searching the other way out.

Light didn't like the sound of it at all. Because he had no idea how to filter all the anger out without bursting. He couldn't just scream and cause a scene. That wouldn't be him. He wanted to believe that he was a rational and sense driven person, but the fact that he was bursting from the inside, probably showed the opposite…

All these thoughts and theories were shifting Light's mind back to Lawliet and his lessons. To all the "revealing your inner omega" talk. But now it felt like he was revealing something entirely different. Something that felt more similar to that dark side of his vision.

Light's breathing quickened. He didn't want to think about that. He didn't even want to remember that vision existed. But it was making its way to the front of his mind more and more often. And it made him feel uneasy. He didn't like what Lawliet helped him discover. The more he was thinking about it the more he started believing that Kiyomi was actually right when she said that Lawliet brought nothing good to this school.

He was looking at her, when the madness stopped. He was looking at Kiyomi and their eyes met. While all the students were slowly turning back to their meals and discussing what happened, Light's eyes were fixed on Kiyomi and she was looking back at him. At that moment he felt betrayed and hurt, but he found no regret in her eyes. She smiled at him and nodded in his direction. Light understood that she didn't feel bad about her actions. She probably even though she has done him a favour.

Light really had a mess inside of his head. There must have been a reason she saw Lawliet as pure evil and there must have been a reason why Mello stood up to protect him.

From Light's own experience? No help. He felt as conflicted about his professor as ever.

With these thoughts, Light was mindlessly crossing the corridors of Hogwarts when he suddenly froze in his tracks. He heard a voice saying:

"Why is Lawliet not here? Did something happen?"

Light's eyes went wide. He didn't even think about what impact the article could have on his family. But they must have read it. Everyone in the country must have read it. But his father, unlike most of the country, knew to whom Lawliet was giving private lessons to. And the voice he just heard belonged… to Light's father.