AN: Another round of fantastical mini-prompts! I'm not going by a word count this month either because I have a story I want to tell-but we'll see how we go! Welcome to Hogwarts, BAU style ;)
As always, the /r/fanfiction pint-sized prompts are open to any and all who want to join in!
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February 1st: A Tumultuous Beginning
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February 1st: Joy - Let's start off with a dramatic moment: Your characters are celebrating a victorious battle!
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"Maybe you'll get sorted in with the house elves," the girl had said to the ranged group around her, flicking her dark hair cockily. She stood with her arms folded, her knees steady, and a completely could-not-care-less expression on her face that Aaron knew was purely to antagonise. "Oh… but I should think they wouldn't take you lot. Maybe the squid will, if you ask nice."
There was a beat of silence. The train rattled along, the six students staring each other down, and Aaron shoved the rest of his chocolate frog in his mouth and reached for his wand. Not that he knew how to use it yet. But if the four students decided to make a move on the girl, well…
He wasn't gonna watch a girl get smacked around, anyway.
"This is a turn up," said the boy slouched behind him, grinning widely and shouldering past. Aaron hunkered back. These people were strangers. Strangers at a strange new school and he shouldn't get involved; besides, it looked like the four guys were rethinking smacking the dark-haired girl with the sharp smile. "Oi, if they're getting sorted in with the squid, reckon there's a brain between them?"
"Doubtful," said the girl, her own wand tucked behind her ear. "Sup, Dave. Do you smell fish?"
Damn.
The leader of the group looked back, scanning the boy who'd spoken first, his blue gaze landing on Aaron next. "Oh look," he murmured quietly, his mouth twisting into what would have been a smile if his face wasn't quite so cold. "Dirty jeans, a too-small polo… we've got a muggleborn here. Hanging out with mudbloods, Rossi?"
"Ha!" said the boy she'd called Dave tossing his head back with his hand on his hair. "Yup! I'm as muddy as they come, Foyet."
And then he punched him.
Aaron hadn't grown up how he did without learning how to hold his own, but they had wands and, somehow despite being first years, knew how to use them. The girl shouted something and two guys trying to pin her down dropped like stones; the third slapped her across the face as his wand went flying. Aaron blinked. Then he got mad.
It all got a bit blurry after that.
There was brief period of nothing until someone touched his shoulder. The guy—Dave? —still smiling, but softer now. "That was dumb," he said, brushing something from Aaron's shirt. "But cool. You're alright, kid."
Aaron just nodded, turning to watch as the boys they'd just royally knocked around—some still wobbly from the girl's spells—stumbled away into the curious crowd of robed onlookers. He didn't say anything, worried that to say something would give away how damn excited he was to have won.
"Thanks for that," the girl said later, when they'd been sheepishly herded off the Hogwarts Express and marched duckling style up to the hall up from the headmistress's office, where they were seating on low benches that Aaron assumed were there just for the people who'd messed up enough to earn it, but not enough to be marched all the way in. "You didn't need to jump in. You didn't even use your wand."
"That's not true," Dave cut in, beaming as McGonagall strode towards them, her face tightly drawn. "He whacked Foyet with it after he slapped you. Hi, Headmistress! Mum told me I'd be seeing you quickly. Gosh, she was righter than she knew…"
"Oh good," Headmistress McGonagall said, glaring at Dave. "Another Rossi. And a Prentiss I see. Your mother will be most displeased about this, Prentiss." The girl, despite the stern tone being levelled at her, seemed delighted by this. "Hotchner, this is not how I expected your first day to go. Not even your first day. We haven't even eaten yet!"
Aaron winced. He didn't regret his bloody nose or his scraped knuckles or even the nick in his brand new wand that McGonagall herself had taken him to get after his Dad had refused to…
He did regret the disappointment on her face as she twitched her wand near his face and the soreness went away. "Sorry, ma'am," he said, shrinking down. "Won't happen again."
"No," she replied, her tone softening. "I don't think it will. Since its your first day at Hogwarts, for all three of you… no punishments will be levelled. But this is your only chance. Don't make me regret my leniency. Now… come along. You all have to get changed into your robes so you can be Sorted, and you're holding everyone up. I'm most displeased."
"Brilliant," said Dave, leaping up with a whoop. "I'm a Ravenclaw for sure. Smart as shit, that's me."
"Language, Rossi!"
Aaron followed on Prentiss's heels, pretty sure he'd made four enemies. Prentiss glanced back at him, her mouth curled into a smile. He reconsidered. And he smiled back, the excitement returning but nowhere near as savage this time.
Maybe, just maybe, he'd made at least one friend as well.