Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Only the original characters and plot are the property of this author. This author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media or franchise that is depicted within this story. No copyright infringement is intended, as there will be no profit made from this story by its author. The only places that this author has personally posted this story are on Archive of Our Own, and on Fanfiction*net; anywhere else that this story appears, is a duplicate created by parties unknown and without the express permission of the author of this story.

※ Harry and the Beast ※
※ Ch. 02: Home Invasion ※

"Is this the right place?" inquired a young girl with blue hair and brown eyes as she eyed the seemingly abandoned apartment complex across the street from the park she and her partner, a girl with chestnut colored hair and purple eyes were currently standing in front of.

"I think so," the bubbly girl with chestnut colored hair admitted. "But the thing is, I don't see how it could be. I don't think anyone's lived in these homes since the Blitz, I mean look at how shelled out they seem to be."

"Isn't this person some sort of Magician? What's to say he didn't simply conceal his presence using magic and make it look like the other homes are abandoned…"

"I mean, I suppose he could have." the bubbly girl admitted. "But if he went to all that trouble in order to ensure his privacy, then perhaps contacting him by way of an intermediary might be better."

"You want us to talk to this heretic…?" the blue haired girl inquired in a bemused tone of voice.

"Talking never hurts anyone," admitted the amused voice of someone who had managed to sneak up on the two young girls. "And you are in error if you believe me to be a heretic, as I was never a practitioner of the Christian faith, even if I did read my way through your Holy Book. Now, who are you and why are you standing in front of my home with two incredibly powerful and potentially destructive magical relics."

"Don't be absurd, nothing in our possession is magical!" the bluenette argued.

The bespectacled man pointed at the sword which was strapped to her back and said, "That is radiating powerful magic, now I grant you that it is being classified as Holy magic, but it is magic all the same." Harry then pointed at the scrunchy wrapped around one of the bubblier girl's twintails and asked, "Is that a sword, and if so, why is it in your hair?"

"Er, well, you see, it's a shapeshifting sword…" the girl mumbled out.

"And what happens if it spontaneously turns back into a sword while attached to your head?" Harry queried.

Predictably, that question caused the girl's face to drain of all color as she said, "That would be bad. Very, very, horribly bad."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Harry agreed with an amused chuckle. "Now answer the question, who are you and why are you here?"

"Um…" the bubbly girl started to say, only to be interrupted by her partner.

"We don't answer to you, magician!" As she was saying this, the bluenette began unraveling the sealing cloth which contained her Sword of Destruction, and hefted it into an offensive grip.

"I suggest you put that toy away before you embarrass yourself." Harry remarked.

"RRRAAARRRWWW!" the blunette exclaimed as she dashed towards Harry while slashing down with her incredibly large sword.

Harry stepped to the side, just barely managing to avoid being hit by her blade, and smirked when he felt her foot impact his own, which caused her to fall on her face due to a loss in balance. Harry on the other hand, was left on his feet due to having become very coordinated during all the life and death battles he had fought over the years. "See, embarrassing."

"Xenovia!" the bubbly girl exclaimed as she ran over to her partner, before shooting a confused glance at Harry due to the fact that Xenovia was actually unconscious. "Okay, how did you manage to knock her out?"

"That was me, not him." a new voice spoke up from the street she had been watching until Xenovia began her charge.

"Daphne, what part of 'stay inside' do you not understand?" Harry inquired as he shot a glare at the newcomer.

"The part which has you confronting two Exorcists, albeit Rookie Exorcists, on your lonesome, Potter." Daphne Greengrass admitted. "That, and last time I checked, I am the only one in that house who has any experience dealing with other Factions, although I do admit you are doing remarkably well for someone who only learned the other Factions exist today."

Daphne said all that as she finished walking over to the small park that the Exorcists had been using to conceal their presence. Once there, she knelt next to the newly named Xenovia, placed her wand on the girl's sword and said "Specialis Revelio."

"What did you just do?" the bubbly girl demanded.

"She's analyzing your friend's sword, and I'm pretty sure she wants to know more than just how badly off I'd be if I got hit with the thing." Harry admitted.

Daphne pulled back her wand and said, "That's not just any Holy Sword, that's one of the fragments of Excalibur."

Harry blinked a few times and then said, "I'm pretty sure that the True Excalibur was shattered into the fragments you just mentioned when King Arthur used it in an unscrupulous manner during his duel with my many times removed Great-Grandfather, Lancelot of the Lake."

"Oh this is so not good," the bubbly girl murmured as she realized just how badly her partner had flubbed their mission.

Harry noticed the girl's reaction and said, "Don't worry, I don't hold either of you responsible for this fiasco. Rather, I blame whoever sent you here without providing you with any intel on what you would find when you got here."

He then turned to look at the sword and said, "Eresh, are you still following me?"

"Yes, I'm still here." a disembodied voice spoke up.

"Do you mind locating whoever is responsible for these girls and bringing them into my presence, as I am very upset with whoever they are."

"I can find the human who is responsible for them, but you're out of luck if you want me trying to corral an angel."

"What in Father's name is the meaning of this?" demanded a feminine voice, catching everyone's attention and causing their eyes to turn towards the sky, where they saw a beautiful woman with a set of twelve pure white wings. This clued Daphne and Irina in on the fact that they were in the presence of one of the most powerful Angels in the Heavens, and probably the most powerful female angel, and told Irina just how badly their mission had truly been bungled.

"Looks like you won't need to look for anyone, Eresh." Harry acknowledged as he waited for the angel to land, and then said, "Right, why are Heaven and the Church so interested in me and mine?"

The angel looked flustered for a minute and said, "I must ask you to hand over the abomination…"

"Denied." Harry negated and then scowled at the angel when she started pouting at him. "Nice try, but Luna Lovegood actually made sure I was immune to that tactic. She claimed I would need that immunity at some point in the future, now I see why."

The angel tilted her head to the side and asked, "You would side with the Beast?"

Harry sighed and said, "Eresh, what is this angel talking about, what Beast?"

"Eresh?" the angel queried, as she glanced at the young blonde woman who was standing over the unconscious form of Xenovia Quarta.

"I sort of glossed over it earlier, Harry. My brother had a really bad habit of attacking anything he doesn't understand and trying to force it into submission. One of those things was an entity that he called the 'Imperial Beast' but which most other people refer to as the Beast of Apocalypse."

"Aunt Ereshkigal?" the angel queried in a confused tone of voice. "But you're supposed to be d-OOF!"

Harry scowled at the angel and said, "Please leave and take your charges with you as you go. I grow tired of these continued insults towards my friends, especially when I know for a fact one of them doesn't deserve the hatred you are directing towards her. After all, according to your Holy Book, the 'Soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.'"

"You… you just…" the angel stuttered, having never expected to encounter someone who knew her Father's Word well enough to quote situationally appropriate passages without actually being a Christian.

"My life prior to Hogwarts was dominated by fear, fear of being punished for doing freaky things like my freaky mother and father, fear of being forced to sit through another exorcism where priests read scripture over me while trying to cast out demons that never existed. Fear of you and your brethren. Now get lost."

The angel was in tears by the end of his rant, not knowing how to deal with someone who had so much legitimate animosity towards the Church. Irina looked at Harry and said, "You're really mean, you know that."

"I've not had a very fun life," Harry admitted. He then smiled at Irina and said, "I still don't hold you or your friend responsible for any of this. It's just that seeing Miss Feathers brought up a lot of old trauma I thought I had buried, especially when she demanded I hand over one of my friends."

"I'll mention that to Sister Griselda." the young girl said.

The angel suddenly winced and said, "I suppose we should get Xenovia back home."

With that said, she knelt down and pulled Xenovia into a princess carry and then frowned when she realized her charge's Excalibur Fragment was being held by the blonde she had barely even noticed. "Excuse me, but that belongs to the Church."

"I hereby exercise my right as the Heiress Greengrass and Scion to Sir Gawain Grene, to reclaim this sword for Her Majesty, the Queen of England."

Harry smirked, "As the Scion of Sir Gaheris, Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad, I support this decision to reclaim the sword on behalf of Her Majesty, the Queen of England."

"Now what?" Irina queried.

"Now we have a major diplomatic problem that I see no easy solution for," Gabriel of the Four Great Seraph admitted.

"Diplomacy is my middle name!" an excitable voice cried out, causing Gabriel to scowl as her self-proclaimed rival was deposited in front of them by some sort of teleportation device that had nothing at all to do with transportation circles.

Harry blinked at the overly excitable young woman, then at the angel's scowling face, and then at Daphne, "What was that you were saying about being able to see past my Fidelius?"

"Remember what I said I do for a living?" Daphne inquired, getting a scowl in return. "As for these weirdos, I have no idea how they keep finding the place."

"I'm pretty sure that the Mahou Maou found us by tracking the angel." Ereshkigal admitted.

"Of course I did!" the raven haired devil admitted. "Now, what is the nature of your diplomatic crisis, Gab-Gab?"

Harry snickered at the angel's highly embarrassing nickname, "Daphne, did you just experience a flashback to our sixth year at Hogwarts?"

Daphne grunted in a non-committal manner, she was far too focused on what the the conversation the Angel was currently having with someone up in the sky, which based on what Ereshkigal had already said, was likely one of her brothers. Eventually the angel sighed and said, "I've been authorized to inform you that several of the Excalibur Fragments were stolen from the Churches which were housing them. Out of the three that are still controlled by the church, two are currently in our presence, and one of them is now in a contested state of ownership."

"This better be a joke, Gabriel-dono, because if it isn't I'm going to be very angry with you and your brother for not informing me immediately." the formerly energetic young woman said as she developed the mannerisms of a consummate professional.

"I do believe Uriel is in a meeting with the other Maou," Gabriel admitted. "I was sent here on other business."

"Oh, is that what Uriel wanted?" Serafall Leviathan inquired. "Well, okay then."

The ravenette turned to regard Daphne and asked, "And why do you want the sword?"

"Do I really have to explain that all over again?" Daphne inquired.

"She's the many times removed descendant of a Knight of the Round Table, while I am effectively the descendant of three of those. Add to that my status as the new Lord Slytherin and…"

"How did you come by the title of Lord Slytherin?" Serafall inquired in a very curious tone of voice.

"I'm distantly related to Salazar on the maternal side of my family, and I was forced to take the life of the only other candidate for the title." Harry acknowledged.

Irina scowled at this news, but wisely kept her mouth shut when her Angelic superior didn't chastise Harry's actions. She did have one question though, "How come Xenovia is still unconscious?"

Daphne smiled at the girl and said, "I hit her with a Stunning Charm, it will keep her unconscious until a counter-charm is applied."

"Lady Leviathan," Gabriel intoned, drawing everyone's attention back to her. "If you would be so kind as to stop drooling and give us your assessment of the political standoff we're in?"

"I know why I wanted to meet Lord Potter-Slytherin, but why are you here?" Serafall asked in a confused tone of voice.

"It doesn't matter, Lord Potter was right, I was asking him to relinquish something I had no right to and will spend a day or two in the Second Heaven as atonement." Gabriel acknowledged.

"Well that's rather ominous," Serafall admitted.

"Actually, hold on a second," Harry spoke up. He looked at Irina and said, "How did you get here, who sent you, and when did they issue your orders?"

"Um…" Irina murmured, "Well, we flew here on an airplane and caught a taxi after we arrived. As for who sent us, I believe it was Brother Gesualdo, and the order came… about a week ago."

"Dulio sent you?" Gabriel queried in a confused tone of voice.

"More to the point, their presence has absolutely nothing to do with the cute monster girl that you wanted to take off to do who knows what to." Harry admitted. He then smiled at Irina and said, "I'm now much more interested in being your friend, Miss…?"

"Irina, Shidou Irina." the girl admitted with a goofy grin on her face that showed she was always willing to make new friends.

He then turned to Daphne and said, "I want you to give Irina her friend's Excalibur Fragment."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Out of everyone I have interacted with today, only Irina and Tria have managed to avoid annoying me." Harry admitted. "Now hand over the sword or I will use my signature spell on you."

Daphne scowled at Harry for several seconds, before sighing and doing as Harry had requested. Not because she thought he was making a good call, but rather because she had no desire to be subjected to the nonlethal spell he used as a coup de grâce on the Dark Lord Voldemort.

"Um… why?" Irina queried.

"I'm fairly sure whoever stole the other fragments will be after the two in your possession, Irina. Which means the last place I want them is inside the Queen's Jewel House, or even worse, Gringotts Wizarding Bank. I already have enough problems with the Goblins without adding anything else."

He then turned to look at the Angel and said, "Didn't I tell you to get off my lawn?"

Gabriel sighed and began walking down the street, with Irina quickly falling into step behind her. Once they were out of earshot, Harry turned to the ravenette and said, "Okay, who are you and what makes you think I won't be just as annoyed with you as I was with the angel?"

"I solved your problem with the Goblins?" the girl offered.

"You… what?" Harry asked in a flabbergasted tone of voice. He had spent the past several months trying to figure out how he was going to gain access to his vaults again, and then this woman shows up and says she managed it without even being asked. "Who are you, and why would you help me?"

"My name's Serafall Leviathan, formerly of the House of Sitri, one of the 72 Pillars of the Underworld, and I was your mother's Pact Devil." the girl admitted while bouncing up and down in a way that made her missing brassiere very obvious.

"Daphne," Harry intoned as he glanced over at the annoyed Unspeakable, "What is a Pact Devil?"

"Why couldn't I mind my own business," Daphne muttered as she began walking towards the concealed entrance to Harry's home, completely ignoring the scowl that just appeared on Harry's face. "Life would have been so much easier if I had just ignored that boy's damn heroics like I did at the end of every year at Hogwarts."

"Eresh, could you please ask Lady Malfoy to step outside, it seems I need her to give the secret to another fair maiden." Harry inquired.

"Only because you asked nicely, Harry." the invisible deity agreed.

Harry smiled in the direction her voice seemed to be coming from, causing the deity's face to bloom in a massive blush that he was oblivious to simply because she managed to retain control of her invisibility spell. He then turned to regard Serafall and repeated his earlier question, "What is a Pact Devil?"

"A mutual exchange agreement. I provided her with information regarding long forgotten forms of magic, or at least, they were forgotten by humans at any rate, and she provided me with copies of her research notes." Serafall admitted. "I'm fairly certain she used the information I gave her to help save your life on the night she died."

"So, you didn't… you know…?" Harry queried. He was still a bit raw from his argument with Gabriel, and the discovery that his mother actually did have a devil associate was shocking for him.

"Claim her soul?" Serafall queried, and on seeing his look of horror, said, "No, we don't do that anymore. In fact, that was outlawed back when I was So-tan's age."

Harry was about to respond to that when Narcissa interrupted his train of thought, "Lord Potter, what is going on, who was that woman with wings, why are people swinging swords at you, and why am I the one forced to babysit an adult toddler?"

"I'm sorry, but what was that last one?" Serafall inquired in a bemused tone of voice.

"In order: several people, one of whom I have yet to meet, have independently located my home in spite of the Fidelius Charm; the woman with wings was apparently Lady Gabriel, the Angel of Annunciation; Xenovia tried to cut my head off with an Excalibur Fragment because she lacks manners and didn't know anything about me beyond the fact that I can use magic; and last but not least, because I trust you and Tria seems to trust me. With all that said, could you please share my secret with my new friend?"

Narcissa scowled at him for a second, before turning to his newest friend and saying, "If you hurt my cousin…"

"You'll chop me into little itty bits, and then scatter them to the four winds?" the woman inquired in a helpful tone of voice that caused Narcissa to blanch.

"It's like Lovegood all over again, just with black hair!" Narcissa complained in an annoyed tone of voice. She then reached into her Victoria's Secret Compartment and withdrew a small sheet of parchment and handed it to the Great Devil King, while saying, "Read that, memorize its contents and then destroy it."

The Maou glanced at the parchment and took a moment to truly comprehend the contents, before looking around Narcissa and towards No. 12's slowly materializing front door and windows. "My mind is blown."

Suddenly Harry's day went from odd, to downright painful as a loud screeching voice cried out the words, "Harry James Potter, you get in here right now or so help me!"

"Lovely," Harry complained as he extended an arm for each of the beautiful, and in Narcissa's case, unavailable, women in his company and began walking towards his home.

※ Chapter End ※

Author's Note: The Excalibur Arc was actually supposed to be the second DxD story arc Harry and his allies will be directly involved in, rather than the first. Unfortunately, I have realized that there are a few difficulties in how I have chosen to portray Tria and will be unable to continue the story in its current format. However, I may opt to switch to the version where Tria is a little girl instead of a grown woman at some point in the future.