8 Summer
*Warning; slight Horror theme for this chapter,
(MATEO'S POV)
It was the night of the summer festival in Japan. The streets of the wizarding- or in their case: the exorcist village, were filled with different kinds of stalls. Selling a variety of things. From foods and drinks to small toys the kids would enjoy to a cursed talisman that can make someone feel pain worse than death. I swear I even got a glimpse of someone breathing out a chinese dragon made out of fire from their mouth at one point.
It was very crowded and bright. Filled with vitality.
Mrs. Flickchered is probably sitting near one of the stalls enjoying the Sake. While Uncle Ed… lets just say he might've gone off his merry self somewhere and would be back the next morning. While little O' me? I'm just going to enjoy it from a distance.
It's too crowded for my comfort. And sitting on top of a nearby tree on the outskirts of the festival while enjoying the summer breeze… hits the spot.
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"Heya," a familiar voice greeted me,
I looked down and saw a figure clad in green haori, wearing a crow mask that was sold in the stalls- covering their face.
"Been a while hasn't it?"
I stared at the figure. It was a bit hard to see the figure honestly, the bright light from the festival stalls is a bit blinding in contrast to the dark sky right now,
"Do I know you?" I asked,
"Hm?"
The figure giggled,
"Ofcourse!"
They placed their hand to the mask and showed their face
"We met at the hospital before, didn't we?" Her blond hair swayed with the flow of the wind, I could faintly see her smile from here. Cheeky and Wild.
"...Miss Frey?"
"The one and only!" She shrugged, "Sides, didn't I tell you to just call me Frey?"
"Miss Frey,"
"...as stubborn as ever" she sighed, climbing the tree I was on and sitting right beside me, "So, how's that 'friend' doing?"
Friend? Does she mean Iryan?
"He's fine,"
"That's good," she said and kept her eyes to the festival that's happening down bellow
I wonder what she's doing here…
"Miss Frey, what are you doing here?" I asked,
"Hmm? I usually come here every summer to enjoy the festival." She answered, "Speaking of festivals, do you know the story behind this festival?"
I have heard about some Matsuri from Mrs. Flickchered, "It's a festival to pray for deliverance from any Plague… wasn't it?"
She chuckled, "Nope, this festival was celebrated because of… a case close to a certain incident that now became nothing but a folktale to scare children's off to not play till sun down" She held the Crow mask she was wearing before and cares it with her fingers, "It's called the Karasu Matsuri"
…
"Long ago, which is not too long ago;
Childrens of the village will disappear in the dead of the night from their houses. Every time a child disappears, all memory of the child would disappear with them, like they never existed in the first place. The only proof they existed would be the clothes and toys of the childs that were laying around.
At first the villagers thought it was just some random objects someone put there as a prank. But the longer it happened, the parents started to feel something was amis and missing from their life. There would be a small face that appeared in their dreams, laughing with them… as if they had a child. Confused, the parents of the village started to do everything to stop this from happening. But none succeeded. The disappearance kept on happening and the feeling of loss started to grow.
In their desperation, The parents cried for help from the local white-robe priest to help them, and the priest complied with their pleas. The priest conducted a small offering ceremony to appease anything that could be taking away the childrens. And he seemed to have succeeded. No more feeling of loss could be felt, and they conducted a small celebration to celebrate it. And that's how this festival started.
…well at least this was the version that most of them speak, It's correct. But this wasn't the full story" She ended the tale, swinging her dangling legs back and forth.
The story sounded familiar to me, like I've heard it somewhere before. But I wonder where? And, "What's the full story? If that one was just part of it, what really happened? And why Karasu(1) matsuri and not shiro(2) matsuri?"
Miss Frey glanced at me from the corner of her eye and smirked, "Curious?"
"Yes,"
"Haha… I knew you would," she leaned back to the branch and hummed, "Now… What happened, you ask? It's quite cliche now that I've thought about it.
Remember the priest? He turned out to be a dropout from Mahoutokoro, Japan's wizarding school. Because he picked up black magic practices. He was supposedly cast out of his family and worked as a priest here to redeem himself. Yet he took being a priest as an opportunity to mask any thing he does as 'will of gods'. The missing childrens were also his doing, he used those childrens as experiments for his practice and burned away the remains when he did the 'offering ceremonies'. After that, he became more careful when stealing the childrens.
He even tried to brainwash the worried parents to believe their child either never existed, died, got into an accident, ran away, etc using his authority as the priest. And those who still doesnt believe him? He will say that they were possesed and… lets just say they were never heard of again. With no one to question him, he became the top of the food chain there.
Honestly, he would have done a perfect crime. He managed to erase most of his tracks and didn't get caught for decades. But as his wand was confiscated when he got expelled, there were always tracks that he left behind intentionally or unintentionally. The only reason he stopped was when a travelling wizard with a crow that came to this village and accidently witnessed what he was doing.
They dueled for a long time, but of course, being wandless had become a huge disadvantage, The priest obviously lost but the travelling wizard did not leave without a scratch either. Now imagine how strong that black wizard could have done if he really did have a wand at hand back then." She chuckled, "Things might've come for the worse"
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After that, Miss Frey said she needed to go somewhere and said her goodbyes to me. As always, she come and go like the wind.
...
'Wandless magic huh…' I thought, I opened the palms of my right hand and observed them. Wandless magic was easier said than done. Using a wand can help people focus their magic to one point, while wandless can come from any part of the body so the concentration is more spread out. Mrs. Flickchered said that visualization is key, but to me; concentration is everything.
Gathering all magic to a single point, visualizing it to do what the user desired, and accomplishing it…. It all requires concentration.
"I wonder…' I hummed in my mind, I tried to picture a form of a butterfly while using lumos as base; Huh, it worked?
A small butterfly made of light came from the palm of my hand and it immediately disappeared afterwards. Though it was very faint, it was there.
I dropped my hands down,
"Learning that is gonna take a while" I sighed, "I wonder what's that Doofus doing right now, he better not do anything stupid…"
(THIRD POV)
Somewhere in Britain;
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"Achoo!!!"
"Wow," Harry mused, "that was a loud one. Are you okay?"
"Yea... I just had the sudden feeling that someone was talking about me"
"Who?"
"I don't know--" The blond stopped, "actually, I think I know who it is"
"Oh?"
"Just a little robot, no need to concern yourself about him"
"Ok?" Harry said uncertainty,
"So, about that summer break" Iryan drawled out,
Both Iryan and Harry were now in their third year in the Muggle school. Most kids avoid them because of reasons that is quite simple and stupid in actuality. Harry was avoided because of his scrawny stature and some 'threats' from the ever most lovely-bully, Duddley. While Iryan was avoided because of the difference he had. The only reason they're not dead by now could even be called a miracle provided by the watchful eyes of the Crowel couple that would probably ruin the principal and the teacher's life if they even see a single scratch on Iryan.
Currently they were enjoying their first week of the summer in the Crowell's house, planning on what they were gonna do with their break with a cold glass of sweet tea.
"Should we prank your cousin again?" Iryan smirked and Harry's eyes gleamed
"Why not?" He immediately agreed, "But we better be careful, I don't want to get scolded by my aunt again"
"Noted," he nodded his head, "But what kind of prank should we do this time…"
"Hmm, well I do have this idea in mind…" Harry's smile grew a bit wider, "what do you think of a little early halloween scare?"
"Oh?" Iryan hummed, intrigue
"So this is what we are gonna do…"
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Under the dim lighting of the lamp, Dudley was watching the television unbothered by anything else. He was holding a hotdog in one hand and the tv remote in the other. Mrs. Dursley was in the kitchen while Mr. Dursley went out to a company dinner. It was a relatively peaceful evening for them since Harry was currently with the Crowel's, therefore, they didn't have to worry about him at all.
Dudley changes the channels one by one, trying to find something that catches his interest but fails. Just as he was about to turn the Tv off, the channel switched to a news channel talking about the rugby team. Happy, Dudley put down the controller and enjoyed the hotdog while watching the show.
"Dudley-kins," Mrs. Dursley called, "Dinner is ready"
"Okay!" he answered, yet feet unmoving. His eyes were still glued to the the tv screen, "I'll be there--
CLACK
He stopped mid sentence after the loud sound disturb him. He raised his head trying to find the source of the sound but couldn't find anything that might have caused the loud clatter. So he shrugged it off, he tried to reach for the remote control beside him blindly as his eyes ended up coming back- glued to the screen.
When he finally found it, the remote wasn't the same solid rectangular object he had used for years. But somehow a bit on the gooey side and squishy too. Horrified of what he accidentally touched. Dudley reflectively darted his eyes towards where his hand was. But what he saw… was nothing but the same old remote he had seen countless times before.
"Dudley-kins, Hurry, the soup is getting cold!"
"Yea," He switched the tv off and stood up, but when he turned to face towards the kitchen door he froze. The door that was supposed to be bright was pitch black, and worse of all
"Dudley-kins?" Mrs. Dursley called again
clad in a white dress, a figure came out of the door...
"Are you coming?"
Hair curled and you can see the long neck, bare from anything,
"I said the dinners ready"
And her face…
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.
.
... was nothing
Void of emotions-- no, it was pitch black. As if her face was dug out and was replaced with an endless hole. But he oddly could see a faint smile on her face, and two crescent shaped eyes looking at him.
"Dudley?"
He tried to scream, but no sound came out. So, he ended up fainting.
"DUDLEY???" Petunia screamed, running towards her unconscious son
...
"Did we go too far?"
"I think we did…" Iryan gulped, he was only planning on making Dudley a bit scared. But judging from the loud thud and the scared scream of Mrs. Dursley... yeah, He definitely went too far.
The hallucinating curse, Phantasma, was a small curse spell he saw his mother casting once when he was young and begged her to teach him. He never tried it on a muggle before and only practiced it to himself, so he didn't know how it would affect them. Welp, now he knows. It was... extremely drastic.
"And you said that this was the most harmless level?" Harry questioned, "how scary would the scariest be if this was the most harmless?"
"You don't have to worry, I heard from my Mom that you need to at least practice legilimency before I can use it to mentally scar someone"
"Should I bow down to you now?"
"Please don't…" Iryan took his walking stick and stood up from the bush he was hiding at with Harry, "we should head back now. I don't want to get in trouble with Mrs. Crowel"
"Yea" With that, both Harry and Iryan sneakily went back to the Crowel's home, thinking maybe they should give Dudley some chocolate as a silent apology.
(OMAKE)
(3)Dear Robo-mechanicus,
How was Japan? Hope you are well and hope you will send me back some souvenirs once in a while. I heard Japan has a variety of local sweets that are delectable. I also heard that Mochi is a top pick.
I am, for one, having a blast this term. The subjects were all so easy, I managed to be the top again this year. I also managed to prank someone till they fainted-- well, I supposed I went a bit too far. Don't worry, I sent some chocolates to his lockers the next day as a silent apology, so that should be ok. Oh, remember harry? He is staying with us for a few days,
Hm.. what else to write.. I think that's all
Safe travels, from yours truly;
-Iryan
"..." Mateo stared at the letter he just received, and could only think of one thing,
'He did something stupid'
...
(1)= karasu; crow
(2)= shiro; white
A/N; Guess the relation?
(3)= Written in braille, Mateo already learned the it long ago
*Iryan and the Crowel couple doesn't keep in touch with the wizarding community, so they have no idea about Harry's popularity. Mateo had some recognition of the matter since he's been travelling everywhere both in magical and non magical places, but he hasn't met Harry yet. He only used letters to keep in touch with his family. Iryan only wrote "Harry" so Mateo didn't think it was the famous "Harry potter"
Iryan; father is from the Avery, while his mother was from the Grey family, which makes him a pureblood.
A/N; This is a bit of a relief chapter before the real deal, which next chapter.
