Two mistakes
When Al returned to his room that night, Flint wasn't there. Al didn't even bother to go and look for him. It wasn't the first time, and Flint usually showed up again the next day.
Al was wondering if he should feel sorry for Flint. There had to be a reason for his bad behaviour. Perhaps he had problems at home. For some reason, Al doubted that. Flint often bragged about his father, saying he was powerful, strong and rich. His mother always sent him presents, something Flint seemed to like.
The thing Al couldn't possibly understand was why Flint acted like he did. His family was rich, and his parents gave him everything he asked for, so why would he steal from his classmates? Most of the students had tried to be nice to him, at least at the beginning of the year, but they only got glares and profanities in return. He intentionally harmed other students. Why did Flint beat up his classmates, force them to do his homework for him and give him their money? Al had no idea.
"Perhaps he just doesn't like other people," Frida suggested. It was a Saturday evening in the beginning of December. Albus, April and the twins were in the common room together, doing homework, drawing, reading and discussing Matt Flint.
"I've heard that his mother comes from a family of death eaters," April Winter whispered. "You know how he always bullies us muggleborn students."
"Do you really think he's like that?" Frida asked.
April shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just saying that maybe that's the reason. He believes that pure-blooded wizards are superior."
Frida looked shocked. "Really? Does he really believe that?" she asked, gasping.
"I don't know, Frida! It's just a guess."
"But still! What if it's true, April? What do you think, Eirian?"
Eirian just shrugged. She didn't seem to pay any attention to the conversation, as usual. Her left hand was writing something down in a note book, but her eyes were fixed on a painting on the wall. Her right hand held a cup of tea. It had been cold for hours.
Al wondered if he would ever understand that girl. He had never heard her voice, and never looked her in the eyes. She was a mystery. She was always around, physically present, but she was never really there. Her shiny, dark hair against the pale skin of her face made her look almost scary. Still, Al liked her very much. Even though she was too quiet, and spiritually absent, she was nice and friendly in a way. Al could tell that she liked him too.
When Eirian was spacing out like she was now, Al always had a feeling that she was actually concentrating really hard on something. She was a wise girl, and Al believed that she knew a lot more than what everyone seemed to think. Whenever Frida asked her a question, Eirian just shrugged. Most people thought that Eirian was just stupid, but Al felt that the two twins were actually communicating. He thought that the shrugs and smiles were complex answers, and that Frida understood what Eirian meant.
"Well," Frida said. "Flint can't possibly keep this up much longer. One day he'll make a mistake, and then he's gonna pay for all his evil deeds."
It turned out that Frida was right. During the second week of February, Matt Flint made two grave mistakes. The first was to offend a Weasley. Offending a Weasley is never a good idea, because if you mess with a Weasley, you mess with them all. That's a lot of people to have as enemies. The Weasley clan is huge! They always stick together, and they always support each other. So when Flint got up that morning, he should have given more thought to whose homework he should steal.
It was Monday afternoon, and Albus and James Potter were on their way to serve detention in the trophy room when they heard a familiar, high pitched voice just around the corner.
"No, Flint, you'll have to write that paper yourself! And I will not let you copy mine either!"
The Potter brother ran to see Rose Weasley facing Matt Flint in an empty hallway. She was short, slender and red-faced. He was tall, sturdy and mean.
"Just, hand it over, Weasley, or I'll take it by force."
"Well, then do so," Rose squealed.
Flint never got the chance, though, because at that moment, James arrived and jerked him away from Rose. The oldest Potter boy slammed the slightly larger Flint against the wall.
"What, do you think you're doing to my cousin?" James screamed.
"I do what I want, blood traitor!" James was no match for Flint, despite the age difference, and Flint began to hammer away on the older boy.
"Hey, Flint! What are you doing?" Albus tried to come to his brother's rescue, but it was no use. Flint managed easily to take on both the Potters. Rose tried to stop the boys, but what could a tiny girl like her do in a fight between three strong boys? She ended up getting dragged into the fight as well. Someone must have heard the noise they were making, because soon several teachers came to stop the fight. The four students were all brought to the headmaster's office.
"Detention, two weeks, all of you!" McGonagall said fiercely.
After half an hour of explanations James managed to shorten Al's detention, and Rose was excused, since she had only tried to stop the fight. After that, they were taken to the hospital wing. James had two broken fingers and bruises all over his face. Al had a huge cut on his upper arm after being pushed into a miniature unicorn statue. Nothing that couldn't be fixed, of course, but enough to anger the entire Weasley clan. Flint was now officially an enemy of the Weasleys.
All of Al's cousins helped. They started to follow him around, and whenever he tried to hurt someone weaker than himself, a red haired boy or girl would show up out of nowhere. There were fights daily, and by Wednesday the nurse refused to heal any bruises caused by fighting. But that wasn't enough to stop the Weasleys. They left the task of healing to Victoire.
She created a makeshift infirmary in an empty classroom. After finishing school, Victoire was planning to become a professional healer, and she already knew a lot about how to fix small wounds and bruises.
"Dominique," Victoire sighed. "Look at your face! It's all swollen and blue, you look awful."
Dominique answered with a grin. "I don't agree at all, sister. My new skin colour makes a fine complementary contrast to my orange hair, doesn't it, Louis?"
It was hard to tell whether Louis agreed or not, his head was all wrapped up in bandages and the weird sounds he was making could be both crying and laughter.
"I don't like that you participate in this fighting, Dominique," Victoire said. "Now, does it hurt anywhere else?"
"My arm hurts really badly," Dominique answered. "It might be broken."
Victoire examined her sister's arm for a while before she stated, disappointedly, that her arm was definitely broken. "You'll have to go to the nurse with this, Dom."
"I'd rather have you fix it," the younger sister said.
"No, that's not going to happen. I'm taking you to the nurse."
"Oh, please, don't, Victorie!"
And that's how it was, each day, in Victoire's little infirmary. But fortunately, they didn't have to keep it up for very long, because Flint was soon to make his second big mistake that week.
It happened the following Friday. Albus, Fred and Lucy were there at the time, just outside the Charms classroom. The Weasleys were as always watching Flint, in secret, to make sure he didn't do anything stupid again. Frida and Eirian were also there, waiting for Professor Twinkle. Albus didn't really hear what Flint said to Frida, and he hoped he never would, because he could see on Eirian's expression that it was something really horrible. It was as if Eirian woke up from her permanent trance, her eyes stared straight into Flint's, her mouth twisted in an awful scowl, and for the first time, Al heard her voice.
It was deep and rough, not like a man's, but like something ancient and horrifying. It sent chills down his spine, and he could almost sense the entire castle trembling.
"How dare you insult my sister?" she roared.
The Weasleys rushed over, and they saw that Flint was terrified. Al couldn't tell what it was, but he knew there was more to this fight than what met the eye. It seemed as if Eirian had some kind of unnatural control over Flint. Not like a spell or a curse, more like a hypnosis. It lasted for several moments, until Frida placed her hand on her sister's shoulder. Only then did Eirian calm down.
The whole thing was over in just a few minutes. Frida took her sister's arm, and together they walked away from the corridor, leaving Flint panting against a wall. He stood there, breathless, for several minutes before he ran away.
Al never saw him again. The next morning, all of Flint's belongings were gone from their dorms, and Professor Twinkle announced during breakfast that Matt Flint had been expelled. For life.
Al was both happy and a little nervous about Flint being gone. He didn't need to worry about seeing his friends being bullied again, but he had never believed in the possibility to be expelled! Fred and James on the other hand were disappointed.
"We never really got to play any of our good tricks on him," Fred grinned.
Fred grinned. "At least we managed to put a thing or two in his morning pumpkin juice."
"Oh, not again! You'll definitely get in trouble," Lucy complained. "What did you guys do this time?"
"Let's just say that Flint soon will develop a nasty, purple rash all over his private parts."
The rest of the year passed quickly, and nothing really special happened. Eirian went back to her silent old self before anyone else got to hear her voice. Al didn't notice much difference in the Slytherin dorms. It was just as quiet as it had been, but his belongings ceased to disappear. When summer came, Al was both sad and happy. He'd get to see his parents again; he hadn't seen them since Christmas. But going home also meant saying goodbye to his friends. And worst of Al: he had to live with James.
When they finally arrived in London, after hugging his parents, Al ran over to his friends to say goodbye.
Frida gave him a quick hug and looked at Al with sad eyes. "Well," she said. "This isn't goodbye after all. See you next year, Potter."
Eirian said nothing as usual, but to Al's surprise, she placed a pale hand on his shoulder and smiled. He grinned back and knew exactly what she had meant. Goodbye, Al. I'm going to miss you too.
A/N: \o/
Thanks for the reviews! And don't feel sorry for Flint.
Please let me know what you think :)
Next chapter will be up quite soon. Probably...
