UPLOADED: 30/12/2018

WORD COUNT: 3431

Destroyer of Time I
Innocent Magic
Chapter Two

When the Hogwarts Express pulled in at Hogsmead Station, the three exorcists remained in their compartment to wait out the rush of students clamouring off the train and onto the platform. They intended to hunt down the trapped Akuma and dispose of it before reporting the job done to the headmaster and returning to HQ.

However, a sharp rap upon their door was all the warning they received before it slid open to reveal a middle-aged man dressed in long black robes. His eyes were dark and shadowed and his black hair hung as a straight greasy curtain to his shoulders. His skin was sallow, nose large and hooked, and his lips beneath them were thinly stretched in a sneer.

"General Walker?" He enquired, his voice nasally, drawn out and decidedly condescending.

"That would be me." Allen replied, standing with the other two hurrying to rise and flank him. "General Allen Walker." He fully introduced. "This is my apprentice, Exorcist Luca Schmitt." He indicated the German Exorcist who nodded. "And Exorcist Mai Kobayashi." The girl gave a short, shallow bow.

"Professor Severus Snape. Potions Master." The man shortly stated. "Dumbledore believed you would require a guide to his office."

"Very thoughtful of him. However, may I suggest a detour first? To deal with the Akuma that has been contained?" Allen lightly directed.

"The headmaster's magic is strong. It can hold until you have spoken with him."

"On the contrary, magic has little to no effect upon Akuma. The strength of Dumbledore's magic is irrelevant, and his…" He momentarily faltered, looking for the correct terminology, "spells could fail at any time."

Snape did not appear moved by Allen explanation. If anything, he seemed irritated that they were arguing back at all.

"Vee have our own methods of tracking die Maschinen. If you vill not schow us the way, vee vill find it on our own." Luca said.

The professor considered their words for a moment before drawing his wand.

"Perhaps it would be pertinent to point out that your magic will have little effect on us, too?" Mai said, her dominant, left hand drifting to her side beneath her baggy coat.

"I am not so uncouth as to attack guests of Dumbledore, you silly girl." The man scoffed. The Asian Exorcist bristled, but Allen's hand on her shoulder calmed her and she brought her hand back into view.

"You will have to forgive Mai. Her Master is not well known for his manners. Nor his patience. He is ill equipped to pass on such traits to his student."

"General Walker!" The girl protested, blushing. Luca chuckled, earning him her fierce glare.

"Hmm." Snape sneered. Then with a flourish of his wand and a couple of muttered words the compartment was suddenly lit by a silver light. A strange not-liquid, not-gas substance leaked from his wands tip and came together to form a translucent doe. The deer brushed itself against the man's side as he murmured more words, and then it darted forth and through the glass of their window, soon out of sight. "A message. To the headmaster." He stated shortly at Allen's enquiring tilt of the head.

"I see. Then, assuming all is in order now, please lead the way to the Akuma." The General politely requested. Snape turned on his heal and strode away, not sparing a glance to see that the Exorcists followed and kept up.

They departed the train and walked to the end of the platform furthest from where the last few straggling student boarded carriages. Snape set a brisk pace that all three exorcists fought to keep up with once their feet made contact with the uneven cobbled street after leaving the station.

They passed through a small village, houses and a pub's windows glowing in the dark evening, flickering with the light of flames. And as they continued, the buildings became more and more sparse till they had not seen one for nearly five minutes of walking.

The cobbled streets had dissolved into a dirt track and, in typical British fashion, it began to drizzle. Their boots churned the dirt to mud beneath them and Luca and Mai's hair hung limp and wet, while Allen remained protected beneath his hood.

Strangely the professor seemed unhindered by the rain. In fact, he appeared to even be dry despite the conditions. The exorcists passed it off one of the many oddities magic was capable of.

"Are we nearly there?" Mai asked, miserable with the cold. Just days before she had been hunting for Innocence in Barbados with her Master.

"Schtop whinging." Luca muttered.

"Well, some people have busy schedules-"

"You are bickering like children. This is not how exorcists conduct themselves out in the field." Allen stated quietly, but both heard and promptly fell silent, properly chastised.

"Es tut mir leid, Meister."

"Gomen'nasai, General Walker."

"You are children." Snape retorted, a few steps ahead of them.

"A luxury we cannot afford, Mister Snape." Allen replied. "Though with the way they are behaving..."

"Meister!"

"General Walker!"

Luca and Mai's cheeks grew rosy with embarrassment.

"We are here." Snape drawled, putting an end to their antics.

"Here?" Mai asked as they all came to a halt. They were stood on the dirt track, rain now falling heavily. She looked around, but on one side of them were trees, and on the other, an empty field.

"There's nothing here." Luca stated the obvious.

Allen looked curiously from one to the other.

"There's a house." He stated. Glancing down at the General, the two other Exorcists noted the familiar red glow beneath his hood of his cursed eye. "And there is indeed an Akuma inside."

"There is?" Luca looked first left, then right. "Where?"

"You can see the house?" Snape asked before Allen could reply. For the first time since they had met he did not sound condescending. Rather somewhere between curious and suspicious.

"Yes."

"There are wards in place to hide the building."

"I believe Mai has already said Magic has little effect on us."

"Yet they cannot see the house."

"I am sure they could, if they were to activate their Innocence."

"…Innocence?"

"Oh yes! Right away, General Walker!"

Mai reached beneath her large coat, as she had back in the train when insulted. Snape half expected her to draw a wand. Instead she withdrew a sheathed sword, one as long as she was tall. How on earth she had hidden the thing beneath her coat was beyond the professor's understanding. He could only conclude that despite their claims otherwise, some magics could be performed on or by them.

Luca too reached into his jacket, retrieving several small knives. They were of a strange design that included a hole at the end of their hilts. Something the exorcist was quick to demonstrate the use for by spinning them on his fingers with practiced ease.

"Innocence activate." They both mumbled softly, but Snape caught the words, his eyes widening as their weapons glowed with a soft green light. Something the wizarding world associated with the Unforgivable Curse of death.

"I see it now." Mai informed the General and Professor, eyes glued to the now visible house.

"Me too." Luca confirmed.

"The Akuma is on the first floor." Allen stated. "In a room at the back of the house."

"How do you-?" Snape began

"Hai!" Mai practically chirped.

"Schall vee deal with it, Meister?"

Allen considered it for several moments before nodding his consent. It would be best to show the Professor the capabilities of their junior exorcists. He would then be in no doubt of their abilities.

"I can do it on my own." Mai protested. "It's probably a level one. Twos are rare."

"It is a level two." Allen informed her.

"Still, I can handle it."

"An Exorcist, especially a Junior Exorcist, would be wise to accept backup where it can be provided."

"H-Hai." Mai conceded, glaring at Luca as he tried to smother his laughter behind Allen. "Well, come on then!" She threw over her shoulder as she strode toward the rickety gate. Luca was quick to follow.

"Wai-!" Snape again tried to intercede, only to fall silent as the two exorcists strode through the wards as though nothing were there.

"Your magic does not affect us as it should." Allen again gently reminded the Potions Master.

Snape grunted and began to follow Mai and Luca, the General falling into step beside him. And as they crossed the threshold of the ward, Snape muttering a spell to grant himself access, the house becoming visible to him too.

Mai and Luca entered the house ahead of them, stalking across the hall and up the stairs. When the General and Professor caught up, they stood on either side of a door on the landing. With Allen's nod of consent and confirmation it was the correct room, they entered. Mai smashed the door inward with a heavy kick and Luca followed a step behind.

The Akuma had assumed the face of an old woman and sat upon a four-poster bed, gazing out the window to the dark evening sky.

"Children." She crooned, turning at their violent entrance. "You have come to free me? Men have trapped me, a little old lady, within my home…"

"Shut it, Akuma! We know what you are!" Mai growled. She gripped the handle of her still sheathed sword and Luca stepped forth to grip the sheath with his free hand, assisting her in drawing the lengthy weapon in one smooth motion.

"Exorcists!" The woman screeched, now recognising them for what they were. She leapt to her feet and rushed at them, suddenly entirely too mobile and energetic for her appearance. And the skin she wore ripped open and revealed the grotesque metal, knight-like machine beneath that Dumbledore had described to Snape previously. "Come to die!"

Mai swung her Ōdachi in a wide sweep that the machine ducked beneath with a squawk. The blade sliced clean trough one of the iron bed posts, and before the Akuma could get any closer it stumbled backward with a shriek that shattered the large lead window and left Snape reeling. In its grotesquely disfigured left shoulder, one of Luca's knives was stabbed deeply between two plates of armour like flesh.

"Nice one, Luca!" Mai grinned manically, all her social graces melting away in the heat of battle. "Die!" She cried as she swung her enormous sword again. This time ripping through the partition wall and amputating the Akuma's arm as it dodged, though not quickly enough. The machine screamed again, the far-off sound of more glass shattering accompanying the ear-splitting noise. In its pain it stumbled across the room before righting itself and throwing itself at its closest enemy.

Which just so happened to be the Hogwarts professor.

Snape held his wand aloft and fired several red sparking lights at the machine, but they bounced off its armour with no affect. Sweat gathered on his brow as the machine bore down on him, but before it's razor-sharp claws could slash down, it was jerked back a pace or two and stumbled off balance. It was then the dim light of the moon outside caught the glint of wire threaded through the hoop on the end of the blade still lodged in the Akuma's shoulder.

A second and third dagger quickly found purchase between the abomination's armour like plates, the wired threaded through them helping restrict its movements further.

"Oi, Mai, hurry up!" Luca called between gritted teeth as the Akuma began to struggle in earnest.

"You mustn't hurry a lady, Luca!" Mai grinned.

"Wait! Mai, don't-!"

Snape only caught sight of her standing in an odd stance as though to lunge and her blade glowing, before he was jerked away. A howl and battering of wind left him disorientated, and when he righted himself he found nothing remained of the machine. Indeed, nothing remained of that entire side of the building. The entire wall and a good portion of the floor seemed to have been vaporised.

"May your soul rest in peace!" Both Mai and Luca chimed.

Glancing down the professor noted a white gloved hand still gripping his arm after having pulled him out the path of whatever magic that had been. He jerked his arm away from the General's grip and rounded on the other two Exorcists, but before he could get a word out, the General beat him to it.

"Mai. Luca." There was a certain edge to the calmly spoken words that immediately had both of Allen's juniors standing to attention. Even Snape found himself straightening. "What have it told you two about property damage? And civilian safety?"

"Erm… heh heh…" Mai rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, which would have been somewhat pacifying if not for the ginormous sword she still held in hand and sliced as easily as a hot knife through butter through another metal post of the bed.

CLANG!

"…Oops?"

The metal post rolled across the floor and only stopped when it hit the General's boot. Allen sighed heavily.

"Our apologies." He finally said, bowing politely to Snape. The other two exorcists hurried to replicate their General's manners.

-Innocent Magic-

"Oi, where's the greasy bastard?" Ron mumbled around the bread roll he'd stuffed in his mouth.

The Hogwarts welcome feast was in full swing. The sorting ceremony had gone well, and Gryffindor were host to eleven new first years including Colin Creevey's little brother Dennis who was still dripping from his encounter with the giant squid.

Harry, Hermione and Ron had already noted there was no new professor to take up the Defence Against the Dark Arts position in sight at the staff table. And professor Snape was also apparently missing.

"Dunno." Harry, glanced through the staff, resting on the two empty seats. He was happy for the change of subject. He knew slavery was wrong, but the house-elves were genuinely happy with serving. Other than the odd exception, he thought, recalling Dobby's glee at being free of the Malfoys. But then again who would want to work for them?

"Maybe he quit?" Ron sounded hopeful, but Hermione pointed out:

"His name was included on our re-enrolment letters."

"Could've been last minute. Maybe Dumbledore finally realised what a git he was and fired him!"

"That's rather unlikely-" Hermione began, but was interrupted by the feast disappearing, her untouched meal included, and Dumbledore rising to his feet. The rest of the hall fell silent too, waiting on the Headmaster's words.

The old wizard worked his way through the usual rules for the first years' benefits, but cries of outrage broke out when he announced there was to be no Inter-House Quidditch Cup that year.

"Wha-!"

"He can't-!"

"This," Dumbledore continued over the protests, and the students were quick to fall silent once more, desperate to know what could have cancelled the most popular school sport. "Is due to the return of a formally disbanded event that will be taking place throughout the school year, beginning in October. The staff will be far too busy with the preparations and your timetabled classes to supervise Quidditch practises and matches. But I am certain you shall all enjoy this event equally. With no further ado, I announce that this year, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be host to-"

A crash of thunder drowned out anything more Dumbledore said and many a student, and a few ghosts, screamed at a second boom of the Grand Hall's doors bursting open.

A man stepped forth into the Great Hall. He tossed the hood from his wiry grey haired head as he strode unevenly toward the staff table, revealing a scar marred countenance and a mechanical eye spinning in its socket. It darted unnervingly from face to face even as its beady biological counterpart stared dead ahead.

The stranger reached the staff table unhindered, though whether that was due to him being welcome or all being too astonished to act was anyone's guess until Dumbledore stepped forth and shook his hand. They mumbled a few quiet words, mouths held closely to one another's ears to ensure privacy, and then Dumbledore gestured to the empty seat that was customarily for the DADA professor.

"Allow me to introduce Professor Moody, our new Defence Against the Dark Arts lecturer." The Headmaster announced to the school, clapping happily. Hagrid joined him but everyone else, student and staff alike, observed Moody uncertainly and silently.

The stranger slumped into the chair gratefully, unaffected by the dismal welcome he received. He pulled a flask from his pocket and took a long swig from what they all could only assume was an unpleasant substance from the grimace that further marred his face as he forcefully swallowed the contents.

"Is that…?" Harry hesitantly asked.

"Mad-Eye Moody…?" A bewildered Ron replied. "What's 'e doin' 'ere? He's mad. It's in his name!"

"Ronald!" Hermione reprimanded. "That is not his name! Besides, Professor Dumbledore would not have hired him if he were mad! He wouldn't expose students to someone like that."

"I dunno…" Ron was unconvinced. "He did hire Quirrell and Lockhart and Lupin; possessed, fraud and werewolf." He ticked off. "What's adding mad to the list?"

"Oi! Professor Lupin was great!" Harry objected.

"Course he was, mate. Still not typical hiring material, though."

"As I was saying…" Dumbledore cleared his throat and drew the students' attention back upon himself. "It is with immense pleasure I announce the Triwizard Tournament is to be hosted by our esteemed school."

Barely a moment of silence before the Fred, or maybe it was George, loudly disrupted the quiet.

"No way!"

Everyone laughed, and between his own chuckles Dumbledore replied.

"Yes way. This year we will play host to our peers of other magically inclined schools. With whom we will compete alongside in a series of tasks that will test the magic prowess of each school's chosen champion."

"With that said, a good evening to you all. Sleep well!"

Distracted applause broke out even as the hall descended into hushed, excited conversations and prefects led their junior house members on their way to their appropriate house common rooms.

-Innocent Magic-

Dumbledore's guests settled before his desk as he too made himself comfortable opposite them. General Walker, Allen as he had promptly insisted he be named, had willingly taken the offered seat, but his two juniors, Mai and Luca, had insisted on standing. They flanked their superior purposefully and distrustfully eyeing the oddities he had collected over the years with a suspicion he estimated to be the result of years of conditioning. Allen however seemed genuinely curious of them but too polite to stare and instead shot glances at some of the more elaborate or noisy of the collection between holding gracious small talk with the headmaster.

Snape too stood, lurking in the shadows near the door and observing the exorcists with a curiosity that Dumbledore rarely saw expressed by this one of his employees. Through it was well hidden, he supposed, and there was plenty distain and irritation that it lurked beneath.

Allen had hoped this would be a quick arrive, destroy the Akuma, receive thanks of the client and head home. But things could never be that simple despite his wished they could be at least once in his life.

For upon their walk to the castle they had encountered not one, not two, but three more Akuma. A level one and two level twos. Not a difficult altercation, but a small group of villages such as these should not have accumulated such a number of the machine.

And so came about a difficult choice, that truly was no choice at all. Did they stay to investigate further? Or leave, knowing there was a school of children caught in the middle of a potential foul plot?

No choice at all, indeed.

"I shall see to it that lodging is provided." Dumbledore informed them promptly, pleased that they would willingly protect his school.

"There's no need-" Allen tried to protest but Dumbledore insisted. "We still need to inform the Order." He instead claimed.

"You are welcome to any owl from our owlery." The headmaster accommodated.

"We have our own means. I simply need the space to perform."

"Perform?"

"A… ritual I suppose you would call it?"

"I see…" Dumbledore eyed him curiously. "How much space?"

"A clear space of this room's size would suffice. And private. Away from the eyes of your students I should think."

"It will be arranged."