Magnetism
By Corpus Badchild
Disclaimer: Own "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", I do not. Claim it, I will not. Sue me, you shouldn't. Own Yoda either, I do not. But fun to talk like him, it is.
Warnings: Castle of Mirrors spoilers, so if you haven't read the book, you won't understand the opening.
:P
Magnetism.
Chapter 1: Small Potatoes
"Why'd you have to go and say that for?" Asa asked sulkily as he and Manfred walked back to his office.
"Say what?" Manfred murmured.
"Saying I'm 'the opposite of a genius'. It hurts, you know. You could have just said I'm repeating senior year—"
"Sorry, darling." Manfred kissed him quickly, and Asa got the slightest bit more disappointed. He knew Manfred didn't mean his apology at all. He was a selfish bastard, Asa knew, but he himself was one as well. It all evens out, I suppose, he thought. But his heart still sank. Two of a kind. He still wished Manfred had really apologised. His lack of sincerity stung worse than his earlier remark.
And the Tilpin boy, there was something weird about him. No one else besides Asa had ever made Manfred smile before. There was something very, very wrong going on. Asa opened his mouth to complain about it, but Manfred cut him off.
"Shh. We need to talk." He and Asa plopped down unceremoniously into the beanbags near the fireplace. Despite most presumptuous assumptions, Manfred's office was not a grey and dreary place of work. Oh, sure. The area around the desk was. The remainder of the office was comfortable and full of dark, elegant colours. Asa thought it was pretty groovy.
"Is this about the horse again?"
"Yeah, it is." Manfred squidged his mouth to show he wasn't at all looking forward to the chat, either. "It's been all galloping-around-the-schoolyard and it hasn't wanted to hurt anyone. It's been a bit afraid, sort of, and …benevolent," he spat the word like something unpleasant. "Grandfather just wanted to know where you found the ….you know." Asa stared impudently into Manfred's eyes.
"It was dark," Asa started off with a sigh. "A patch of earth past the ruins smelled different from the rest, so I dug it up. There was a casket with a heart, and a bunch of horse bones, which were pretty gross, by the way. The casket had a 'B' on it, so I figured it was the one he wanted." The wolf boy shrugged. "So it's not Borlath, is it?"
Manfred bit at one of his nails. After a silence, he mumbled, "The Queen's name was Berenice." Asa couldn't help but giggle.
"Oh, God. And the horse?"
"Her mare."
Asa burst out into hysterics. Manfred glared darkly at him. "Just what is so funny, Asa! Grandfather's been raving and screaming and throwing things—I nearly had my head taken off!"
Asa coughed and settled down a bit. He smiled. "I'm sorry. Having your head nearly taken off isn't funny, but doesn't it seem like he's always getting things wrong? Maybe that's supposed to be telling us something, right?" Manfred stared out the window, past the black, floor-length curtains appropriate for the medieval window, and said, "I don't know." His eyes were dark in thought.
Asa climbed into his lap and snuggled close to his love. He sighed, breathing in that smell of ink, candles and flame that usually accompanied Manfred. If love were a perfume, he thought, it would smell like ink, candles and flame. "What are you thinking about, love?"
"I'm trying to clear my head of thought." He held Asa closer. "I'm thinking, if someone could bottle the scent of pure sweetness, it would smell like you."
"Hmm…"
Slightly annoyed at the reception of this romantic thought, Manfred looked down at him. "'Hmm', what?"
"I was thinking the same thing about you." Asa smiled, and closed his eyes, warm against Manfred's chest. Across the stars billowed a faint, white wisp and then it was gone again. (1)
:P
School followed the next day, and Asa resented every minute. It was easy this year, except for that damned math. Asa used half an hour of his homework time every night to go over the day's work with Mr. Newton. The first day Asa came in late, Manfred glared at him.
"Where have you been?"
"Mr. Newton was helping me with my math," Asa responded just as stonily.
Everyone who had been watching went back to their work. Manfred shrugged, and Asa rolled his eyes. They shared a secret smile and Asa took his place and opened up the dread math book.
Joshua gave him a funny look underneath his bangs. He had been watching the two the entire time. There was something going on between them. Something that was an obstacle to wrapping Manfred completely around his finger.
He had a feeling.
Just a hunch of course, but a feeling all the same.
He had a feeling the obstacle…was Asa.
:P
One night Asa spent his entire homework period going over those stupid matrices. Load of rubbish, they were. When was he going to apply this to real life? He was going to be an artist. Artists had no need for math and logic. They followed their hearts………ugh! Lord help him.
Asa's mother, upon insistent pleas, had consented to transfer Asa to the art department, where he was much a happier boy. His mediums tended toward black-and-white, but, what the hell. Imagination and heart was a big part of life.
Asa closed the door of Mr. Newton's classroom, and sighed. Manfred was leaning against the other wall, watching him. "We missed you tonight."
"Yeah, well, sorry. I have the headmaster's permission."
And as they walked toward Asa's dormitory, holding hands, Manfred added, "I missed you tonight." Asa stopped and looked at him. He smiled.
"Yeah." Manfred noticed a familiar sparkle in Asa's eye. "Well, come on, then. Bedtime." They resumed walking in the direction of the West Wing. Joshua Tilpin stepped out from behind a sculpted column and scowled. Asa would have to be done away with. That much was certain.
:P
Asa shuffled out into the hallway in his bare feet and pyjamas. "Joshua Tilpin, what in God's name are you doing?" He yawned.
Joshua looked at him, moonlight in his eyes and cold night breeze ruffling his hair. "Wouldn't you like to fly, Asa? Like Emma, just forget all your cares and let the wind take you wherever, far away from your troubles?"
Asa immediately thought of his Algebra II homework. But he narrowed his eyes. "What are you trying to do?" Asa knew the second Joshua smiled at him, he had to hold onto his senses.
An image of leaping out the open window, wings spread wide, the night air rushing at him, flooded his mind. It was painful, and difficult, but he forced himself to see his limp body crushed on the pavement below. He shook his head to clear it, and smiled like a knife. "Nice try, Joshua," Asa whispered dangerously. "The next time you try your mind tricks on me, it will be your last." Joshua glared back at him. It seemed like their angry eyes were locked like swords for ages.
Joshua smirked, and chuckled. "Soon I'll have him wrapped around my finger, and there will be nothing you can do to stop it. He likes me. He'll never believe a bad word you say about me."
"Get to your dormitory or it's detention for you, Tilpin," he growled.
With another dangerous leer, Joshua Tilpin made his way down the hallway and into his own dormitory. Asa slammed the window shut with a bang! Adian Fuller shouted, "Stop it, man, we're trying to sleep!" which brought shouts of "Shut up, Ade!" and "Go to sleep!"
"Shut up, all of you, or everybody'll get detentions for a month," Asa snarled, furious from lack of sleep and Joshua's threats. The only sound was sheets rustling and Asa's bed creaking as he flopped down into it. Ugh. Children.
He hated children.
:P
"Manfred, you have to be careful around that boy. He's after you."
Manfred tilted his head. "Which?"
"Tilpin." Asa's serious face made Manfred smile mischievously.
"Asa."
"What." Asa realised he had spit the word with more venom than he intended, but Manfred's smile turned into an all-knowing grin.
"You're jealous," he sang, poking Asa in the nose.
"And why shouldn't I be? The boy tried to kill me last night! To get me out of the way so he could have a go at you!" Manfred stopped, put a hand on his hip.
"Asa, Joshua doesn't mean any harm. You probably had a nightmare. Maybe he just seems unfriendly because you aren't nice to him. Try it. It may work wonders. And what would he want with me?"
Manfred resumed flipping through his file cabinet.
"Sweetheart, you're not hearing me," Asa cajoled in a sweet voice, slowly turning angry. "He tried to make me kill myself last night!"
"Asa…" Manfred turned around, walked over to the distraught boy, and placed his hands on either side of Asa's face. "Darling, Joshua Tilpin does not want to kill you. I think you had a very frightening, very real dream." Manfred kissed him once, then twice, and again. "Just give him a chance, mm?"
"Kiss me again, I might agree."
Manfred raised an eyebrow at him.
Asa frowned in exasperation. "Alright." He leaned his head on Manfred's chest. Manfred hugged him tightly.
"Things will work out. You'll see."
:P
Asa poked at his lunch, hardly eating anything. Joshua Tilpin plopped down beside him, cheerfully. "Why so glum, Asa?"
Asa turned and made a WHATTHEFUCK! face at Manfred. The new teacher's assistant shrugged, smiled, and made a shooing motion with his hand. Asa stuck out his lip, and turned back to Joshua. "Just having an off day."
Joshua smirked at him and said quietly, "He didn't believe you, did he?"
Eyes wide with flaring anger, Asa grabbed the back of Joshua's head and pushed his face into his plate of mashed potatoes. As Joshua sputtered and wiped the potatoes out of his eyes, Asa flung open the doors, made sure they produced a loud noise, and stormed out of the room.
After some frantic where-should-I-go, Asa found his feet moving him toward the painting room. Miss Hart looked up, startled by his abrupt entrance. Her face was moved with pity, for she viewed Asa as a promising student and hated to see him upset. "Asa, whatever is the matter?"
Asa's eyes and nose were burning with tears. He closed the door quietly and pulled a stool up to her desk. "Can I talk to you?"
"Of course."
"I need help. It's about the Tilpin boy."
"Ah." Miss Hart nodded. She had had a negative feeling about him from the start.
"He's tearing at my emotions. Nobody believes me that this boy is truly evil." Asa stifled a sobbing shudder. "I caught him out in the hallway, outside my dormitory, with the window open and he …he places these images in your head and pulls you towards acting on them…he tried to make me want to jump out the window. He's got it in for me, and no one believes me!"
Miss Hart frowned and picked up her pen. "This sounds serious, Asa. I'd better let the headmaster know."
"He's not going to believe you!" Asa shouted, standing up and walking around agitatedly. "No one does! Everyone loves the stupid boy and Manfred thinks it was a dream and that I should give him a chance, and I tried to be nice to him, and he's all like, 'He didn't believe you, did he?' so I pushed his head into his potatoes and …and now I'm in here," he finished quietly. He sat down, put a hand to his head and stared pleadingly at the art teacher. "What do I do?"
"If he tries to hurt you again, let me know first thing. And then we'll go to the headmaster." She put a hand on his shoulder. "I believe you. Just leave, and come directly to me."
"What if you've got a class?"
"Just barge on in."
Asa smiled in relief, and a tear finally fell from his eye, and another, and then several. "Thank you." Miss Hart smiled at him softly and offered him a box of tissues.
:P
"Asa, the headmaster wants you." Manfred stared sombrely at him, and pointed to the office door. Asa ignored him completely and knocked on the door.
"Enter."
Asa pushed the enormous door open, and shut it behind him without a backward glance. "Yes, sir."
"Sit." Asa sat. "What's this I hear about you pushing Joshua Tilpin's head into his mashed potatoes at lunch today?"
"Well, sir, I got a very bad impression from him the first day he was here, and Manfred thought I should just give him another chance. I tried to be nice to him. But the other night, you know he's magnetic, right? He put these thoughts in my head of jumping out the window, trying to kill me. It was a fourth floor window! I tried to fight him off and sent him off to bed, and now no one believes me because they all hate me and just adore little Joshua Tilpin.
"Sir," he added, "today at lunch, he started a casual, polite conversation, I answered politely, and then he whispered to me, 'Manfred didn't believe you, did he?' And I just couldn't take it, sir." He bowed his head. "I know I was out of line."
"That you were." Dr. Bloor frowned and stroked his black beard. "But what you say about Joshua Tilpin is interesting. I shall keep an eye on him."
"Thank you, sir."
"However," he continued more loudly, training his black gaze fiercely on Asa, "the fact remains that you acted out in a hideous way against a new student. You, a twice-over senior, should know how to control yourself."
Asa hung his head. "Since detention seems to be a happy event for you, you will not be staying here on Saturday. You will go home, and will not be allowed to return here until Tuesday." Asa stared at him, horrified.
"Do I," the headmaster said, leaning forward, "make myself clear?"
"Yessir."
"Good. Dismissed."
Asa bowed his head, and left.
:P
(1) : Woohoo for sapsiness. I was really pleased with that scene.
R&R kids? thanks!