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Who said ghosts aren’t real?
You think ghosts and spirits are just stories to scare children? Hah! You are wrong. They are real. They are very real, and in fact, they are here.
A group of ghosts, spirits, souls without bodies (or whatever you want to call them, they are not picky with labels.) is staring from the dark. Their invisible eyes are glancing from the dark corners in the house. Their gazes are full of fear, looking at the figure in the middle of the room.
“Hi! Welcome back to our channel. I’m Harry Potter and today you might notice that my partner looks a bit different than your favourite redhead. Ron has food poisoning.” The bloke with round glasses nods. His messy black hair waves when he does that — Wait. No, no no, that’s not him. That’s not the figure in the room that makes the ghosts scared. The one they’re so afraid of is there. That Harry Potter bloke is standing next to him. He is just standing there with a frown on his face, lips pursed.
The black-haired man continues, “But don’t worry! I think everyone already knows who we have here. It’s Draco Malfoy! Most of the time he would be in fashion review videos on our channel, but today he is invited —”
“forced,” The blond bloke interrupts.
“— to be my partner today. Today we’re inside Rosewood house, the infamous townhouse that is believed to be one of the most haunted places in Westminster.”
The spirits inside the house stand tall. If they have chests to puff out, they totally would. They are so honoured to be part of this (in)famous Rosewood House. The house is just a 4-floored townhouse, not so big, but not small either. It used to be luxurious, designed with grand furniture and adorned with fancy pictures and prints. Now they are all covered in dust. Nobody lives here anymore…well, they are living here but it would consider the wrong choice of word to describe them in the same sentence with ‘living’, isn’t it?
“If you look from outside, this house is not that different from their neighbours but this house, you guys. It has a story. The owner of this house is a popular politician in the seventies. Something weird happened during the time his stay…”
“Why? Was that politician one of the uncorrupt ones in our history!?” The Malfoy bloke gasps, pretending to be shocked.
“No, he—”
“Oh, alright.” Malfoy shrugs. “It wasn’t that weird then.”
If the spirits were not confused and scared of Malfoy out of their damn minds, they would probably lift a corner of their mouth a tad bit because of his exaggerated gesture.
But they don’t have a mouth to begin with. Plus, they are undoubtedly scared shitless of Malfoy.
Why is he here? Why is he with the human, and Why, Satan, why, why is Malfoy, the demon prince himself, is starring in a ghost-hunting show produced by a human?
—-
Potter kicks the buckled rug in the room by mistake and he howls with fear. “Fuck. God. What is that.” He touches his chest with one hand. The other is holding Malfoy’s shoulder firmly. Malfoy rolls his eyes, shaking Potter off as if Potter’s touch is annoying. Still, it’s not as if the human’s touch is disgraceful, or unwelcomed (which is totally weird in the spirits’ point of view. Why would the demon prince think it is appropriate to stand next to a mere mundane human? They don’t understand).
The blond demon, who is currently a target of the ghosts’ lifeless eyes, turns his face to every direction that he knows they are hiding in. The corner of his mouth twitches. His voice is loud and clear, obviously wanting them to hear.
“Show yourself, ghosts. Trick me. Tickle me with your itsy-bitsy ghost hands.” Malfoy moves his body and turns to look at the camera, smirking.
“Malfoy! Don’t do that! What if they can hear you!?”
Oh, they can hear alright. They can hear it crystal clear. If they had bodies, they would probably shake out of fear, wondering why the fuck would the demon prince dare them to appear before him and the humans.
“Come out if you can hear me,” The blond demon grins to the spirits hidden in the dark. They don’t know what to do. Should they go out? If not, would this count as disobeying someone who ranks higher than them? Satan, what is Draco Malfoy thinking? The ghosts panic.
If there were Google for ghosts, they would probably be browsing it so hard right now, checking Wikihow or something. (“Ghoulgle and Wikihowl, am I right, lads?” the Ghost Dad who’s sitting on the dusty couch suggests and the other ghosts just roll their eyes. “Stop it, Gerard,” Katherine, Gerard’s wife, the Ghost Maid says.)
“Malfoy, you git. Don’t. You know I am afraid of them!”
“Oh, really? Aren’t you the one who told me to help produce content?” Malfoy complains. He pouts, asking “If you’re that afraid then why do the ghost-hunting show in the first place?”
“R-Ron…he said it would be interesting.”
“And you fell for that? Potter, you’re naïve.” He shakes his head, then calling out to them again, “C’mon you guys. We don’t have all day. Show yourself.”
Meredith Cole, one of the ghosts in the Rosewood house, considers for a minute before slowly creeping closer to their ‘guests’. She nods to Malfoy who treats her as if she’s an air (which she is. If you think about it, Meredith is just a soul in the air, no actual body and all that) and then she slowly holds her ice-cold invisible hand close to Potter’s nape and abruptly touches it.
“FUCK. NO. Shit!” Potter curses loudly. He jumps from the invisible touch and slides himself to Draco, two arms clutching Malfoy firmly. Malfoy looks down at the arms clinging to his neck and chest. The owner of said arms is spewing nonsense at the moment.
“Potter.”
“No! Help! They’re ghosts here! I know it!”
“Let me go. I can’t breathe.” Malfoy lies. He doesn’t really need to breathe but Potter doesn’t know that.
“Oh.” Potter lets go when he heard that. “My bad. I panicked. Something, no, someone touched my neck earlier.”
“It was probably just your imagination,” Malfoy says before slowly turning himself to Meredith and discreetly gives her a thumb up. “Good job.” He whispers.
Meredith and other ghosts perk up. So this is what the demon prince wants. Alright! Tricking and pranking humans is a piece of cake. It’s what they’re good at. If the prince wants them to trick Potter then oh, Satan, they will do their best.
“Shit! Something is grabbing my wrist.”
“Malfoy! Did you see that flashlight light up!”
“Hey! I think I heard something.”
“God! My leg touched something!!”
“You prat, that something was my leg and you kicked my shin.” He retorts and kicks Potter’s ankle. “Walk carefully. It’s quite dark here.”
Meredith laughs. Dark? Demons don’t care shit about the dark. They can see in the dark as clear as day. And earlier it was Malfoy who intentionally stretched his long leg in Potter’s way.
The ghosts frown. They don’t understand why the demon prince likes to get involved with this coward human. He even purposefully pulled pranks on the other bloke. Well, he did trick him. Is this a new way to torture human?
——
“I can’t. Malfoy. Take me out of here.”
He’s never watched Potter’s videos because he’s incredibly loud. From what Draco has seen at the office, Potter was always the loud and excited one. Always wanting to go out to places. He likes to shout some stupid words with other dumb colleagues. Draco always had to put on his earphone for that. Draco is so surprised to find out that Potter is this gutless. He thought Potter would kick or punch any ghosts he finds but no, now he’s begging to go out.
Draco finds the whole thing lovely. Potter is lovely. He’s more interesting than Draco first thought. He first entered this entertainment company as a joke between him and other demons but the more he spends time with these humans, the more he wants to stay.
However, he thinks it might be better to stop tonight or Potter might faint. He doesn’t want to carry him back to their car. Using a demon’s power is a no go since Draco doesn’t want the cameraman to faint too.
“What about our contents?” Draco tilts his head, feigning ignorance.
“Enough. We will use that we’ve got. I don’t wanna do this anymore.” Potter whines and stomps his feet like a spoiled child. He walks quickly to the camera, saying “And that’s it for today!” He nods to the cameraman, “Dean, bruv, let’s go! This place is fucking haunted.” Potter practically runs when he finishes his sentence. Dean follows awkwardly, not liking the atmosphere more than Potter one bit.
Draco smirks. For them it is uncanny and scary, for Draco it is what he’s used to. He feels right at home. For a minute Draco just stands there, taking his time.
Draco turns his face to the dark, smirking. He grins at the other ghosts who’s waiting to see what the demon who ranks higher than them would say.
“Good job.” Draco claps. “As a reward, I’ll send message to the reapers and you guys can go to the Great Beyond later if you like.”
Meredith and her ghost friends jump happily. She’s starting to get tired of the Rosewood House and she wants to literally move on, going to the after-death or maybe reborn or something.
They still don’t understand what the demon prince is doing but well, it’s not their place to ask, isn’t it?
When the video is posted, almost every comment begs Draco to come back as a co-host because of his nonchalant comments and the chemistry between him and Potter is ‘to die for.’
Of course, the company is obliged by the comments, views, and sponsors. Thus, a new Ghost Hunting duo becomes trending in no time. Ron Weasley is separated with his best mate Harry, but he doesn’t complain since he gets to pair up with Hermione instead.
There’s a huge gossip going around between the spirits. They said that if a ghost-hunting show starring a human wearing round glasses with messy black hair and a blond demon prince ever visits your haunted place, then go surprise the human as much as you want. You’ll definitely get a reward from Draco Malfoy.
(Of course, you’re only allowed to play harmless tricks. A dumb ghost accidentally injured Potter once and the demon prince was so mad.)