Chapter 4

The Peacemaker

"So, what is it with all these rumors I've been hearing about-" Artie stopped when he realized his friend wasn't paying attention anymore. "Blaine? 'You okay?" He nudged him.

Blaine snapped out of his thoughts. "What?"

"What's up with you? You keep spacing out today."

"Oh, sorry. Lack of sleep, I guess. What were you saying?"

"I heard that some of the other guys are starting a secret club. 'You know anything about that?"

"A secret club?"

"I heard Jeff and Nick talking about it this morning."

"What kind of club?"

"Glee club, I think." Artie expected Blaine to burst out laughing.

Blaine only looked more interested. "They're starting a glee club?"

Artie gave him a funny look. "That's just what I heard... Why?"

"Did they say when or where they're meeting?"

"Why are you so curious about this? I thought you were supposed to be focusing on the team."

"Our next practice isn't until this weekend."

"What? That barely gives us enough time before our first game!"

"Mr. Abrams, Mr. Anderson, could you two please keep your voices down? There are some kids here who would like to be able to focus."

Both the boys sunk back against their seats. "Sorry Professor Pillsbury," they said in unison.

"Our first game isn't for another three weeks," Blaine whispered.

"You seriously think that three weeks give us enough practice time?" Artie whispered back.

"It should be if we practice for two hours, four days a week. And besides, we play against Hufflepuff first; they're not aggressive like Slytherin's players."

Artie raised a finger to retort.

"Don't forget, I'm the captain, Artie. If you don't like my decisions, I'd appreciate if you simply told me. You don't have to protest so forcefully, you know." Blaine smirked.

Artie furrowed his brow. "You wouldn't seriously consider kicking me off the team-"

"Oh, come on, you know I was just kidding." Blaine said.

Artie smiled. "I kinda figured."

The boys left Transfiguration feeling brain-dead, both struggling with their assignment; they were supposed to be trying to turn their pets into goblets, but neither of them could master the incantation. Artie's wand still had yet to stop giving him problems, and only made Glider his owl turn into a feathery goblet with a beak; meanwhile, Blaine only managed to make Skye's feet form in the

"A glee club? Are you serious?" Santana said snidely as the trio walked down the corridor toward the Great Hall.

"What? I just want to go check it out!"

"It's a glee club, B. How does that sound appealing to you?"

"They said it was a secret club. Doesn't that make you want to find out what it's all about?"

"Not really," Artie said with a shrug.

Blaine grunted in frustration. "So I'm curious; who cares? I'm just gonna go to the meeting, find out what they're doing, and see if I like it."

Santana sighed. "Well, I guess I can't stop you from going, so... if you are gonna go, give us the details when you get back."

Blaine smirked. "Now you sound interested."

Santana shot him a glare. "Don't be jumping to conclusions, bub."

"Then stop asking about it," Blaine defended.

Artie snickered quietly to himself, causing Santana to glare at him instead.

"What are you laughing at?"

"From the way you two treat each other, you guys act like a married couple sometimes, you know that?"

Santana's brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"

Artie put his hands up in defense. "Just saying."

Santana's expression softened. "Look, as much as I love Blaine, he's not my type; and I'm obviously not his type either."

Neither of them noticed at first when Blaine veered off to the left.

"Um...guys?"

Their attention snapped back to him. "What?" They asked in unison.

Blaine gestured to the empty corridor spread out in front of him. "The food is this way."

Artie and Santana paused awkwardly for a split second before they exchanged sheepish glances.

"Maybe if you guys would try to go one time without making snide remarks to each other, we could actually get where we're going."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Lead the way, B."

The trio strolled simultaneously down the corridor, switching the conversation to the topic of the week's assignments.

"Glider flew off as soon as class ended," Artie said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he purposely doesn't bring me any post for at least a few days."

"I'm sure he's not as mad at you as Skye is at me," Blaine replied. "She was screeching almost the entire time; she even tried to bite me at one point."

"You know, I'm surprised they don't classify Animal Transfiguration as animal cruelty," Santana chimed in. "Honestly, I'm surprised the school hasn't received any complaints about it."

"Maybe they have, but they're just trying to cover it up," Artie reasoned. "You remember that story your grandfather told us, Blaine? About when You-Know-Who was still alive? How the Ministry tried so hard to convince everyone that he was dead, that they were all safe?"

"You can say his name Artie; he's been dead for years, and all the Death Eaters are either dead or still barely alive in Azkaban," Blaine told him. "But yeah, I remember. The Ministry didn't want to believe it for themselves; they wanted to believe that they were still managing to keep everybody safe. That's why Fudge supposedly 'retired' after people discovered Voldemort was really back."

Blaine was about to continue, but he was cut off by another voice a little ways off in the distance.

"I told you, you don't want to push me, Hummel."

"What are you gonna do, Karofsky? Punch the Slytherin out of me?"

"Shut up!"

"Good luck with that. You've been taunting me for the last year, and I'm done!"

"I said shut it, Hummel!"

Before Blaine knew it, he had picked up his pace.

"B, what are you doing?"

"Sounds like trouble!"

"It's none of our business!" Artie warned, trying to grab his arm.

"I don't care; if you want something to stop, you have to stop it yourself!" Blaine sped down the corridor, searching for the voices. He had seen a lot of bullying in his life- heck, he himself had been bullied too many times to count- but what he found was rather shocking.

David Karofsky had his wand drawn at the ready, aiming at...

Kurt.

Blaine's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"What do you want, Anderson?" Karofsky said when he saw Blaine standing there.

Blaine frowned. "What do you think you're doing, Karofsky?"

"Teaching this Slither-slime a lesson about watching where he's going."

Kurt snorted. "Yeah, because you slamming me into the wall means that I need a lesson! God, Karofsky; does hippocracy run in your family or something?"

This commented seemed to set Karofsky off. He snatched Kurt up by his green and silver tie and shoved him into the wall. "What did you say, Hummel?"

Kurt gagged under his tight grip.

"I hope I didn't just hear you say anything against my family, because then I'd have to go all Cruciatus on you," he growled.

Kurt stared at him through narrow eyes. "I'd like to see you try."

Seeing what was coming next, Blaine had his hand at his wand and raised at Karofsky before he could even think about it. "Diffindo!" he shouted.

Karofsky yelped out and released Kurt, who fell in a heap onto the stone floor. Karofsky's hand flew to his wrist, which now held a small cut on the skin. He looked up at Blaine, and boy, was he pissed off now. "Anderson! You're going to regret doing that in a few seconds!" He charged at Blaine and grabbed him by the hem of his shirt. He pulled him up aggressively to look him square in the face. "You think you're so great because of your family history. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that means absolutely nothing! You don't have half the guts your grandfather had, you are nothing compared to him or your parents! So no matter how blind your arrogance makes you, you'll never be a hero like them!"

"Diffindo!"

Karofsky yelped again, swearing loudly.

Before Blaine knew it, he was on the ground, head hitting the hard stone; the loud thud that it produced echoed through the corridor. He lay there with a blurred vision as he heard voices hovering above him.

"Artie, go see that Blaine's okay," Santana's voice came; "I'll take care of this punk."

"What do you want J Lo?"

"Excuse me?"

"Blaine? Blaine! Can you hear me buddy? Are you alright?" Artie swore under his breath.

"Flipendo!"

Karofsky let out an "oof!" as he tumbled backward onto the floor.

"Why can't you just leave everybody alone, Karofsky? It's not like anybody likes you anyway."

"Santana, I'm not getting any response! Should I take him to the Hospital Wing?"

Santana didn't reply. "Get out of here!" she yelled at Karofsky.

He didn't need to be told twice. Before Santana could incantate another jinx, he was gone.

The next moment, she was beside Artie at Blaine's side. "Blaine?"

Blaine groaned in pain. The back of his head throbbed, and he felt dizzy.

"That was a pretty nasty spill he took," Artie said. "Should we take him to the Hospital Wing?" he asked again.

"I don't know. Blaine, are you okay?"

Blaine slowly lifted his head, rubbing it with his hands, which he now realized were scraped and bleeding.

Santana took both his hands, pointing the tip of her wand at his palms. "Ferula."

Bandages twisted out of her wand and began to wind themselves around Blaine's hands.

Blaine sat up. "Thanks," he said.

"How's your head?"

Blaine winced. "Hurts, that's basically all that can explain it."

Artie put his wand to the back of Blaine's head.

Santana pushed the wand away quickly. "Maybe you should let me do it."

"Right, sorry."

"Episkey."

Blaine's head began to feel better already; the major throbbing was gone, and basically the only thing he could feel now was his newly bandaged hand still rubbing it. "Thanks again."

"We got you're back, B," Santana said with a small smile. "Always."

"Yeah. But there's one thing that I still don't understand," Artie piped up. "Why did you get yourself into this in the first place?"

"Hey, what was I supposed to do? Karofsky was taunting-" Blaine suddenly realized that something was missing. "Wait, where's Kurt?"

"That Hummel kid?" Artie asked curiously. "He's-"

The three of them glanced around the corridor, but no one else was in sight.

"Where did he go?"

"That ungrateful, no good little-" Santana began angrily.

"He's gone," Blaine said simply.

"The pansy ditched us."

"Hey!" Blaine defended.

"He left us to deal with that lousy neanderthal! Who does he think he is?"

"For your information," came an all-too familiar voice, "I didn't ditch you."

They all turned their heads to see Kurt walking up behind them with his arms folded and a frown etched onto his mouth.

A few seconds later, they spotted Professor Schuester directly behind him.

"Actually, I went to go get help," Kurt said defensively.

"Are you guys okay?" Schuester asked.

Blaine saw both Santana and Artie shoot Kurt irritated glares.

"Yeah, we're fine," Santana said.

"Are you alright?"

Blaine realized that Schuester was speaking directly to him. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Is this something I should report to Figgins?"

"No," Blaine said quickly.

Schuester furrowed his brow.

"Really, I'm fine." Blaine looked at Kurt.

The brunette boy seemed to know what Blaine was thinking; he shrugged and shook his head.

Professor Schuester sighed. "Alright. You guys should go; dinner might have already started." He turned around and began to leave.

"Thank you, Professor," Kurt told him.

Schuester turned his head and nodded at him before he disappeared down the corridor toward the Great Hall.

A few silent seconds passed before Kurt realized that the trio still on the ground was staring at him. "What?"

"Why did you come back after you ran?" Santana snapped.

Kurt frowned. "Karofsky turned on you guys after he let go of me; I figured I should at least try to do something."

Santana snorted. "Yeah, because running to get the authorities is actually doing something!"

Blaine saw Kurt's hands curl into slight fists.

"I don't think you have room to tell me what I should or shouldn't do, Lopez."

Santana's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me, Hummel?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Forget it. I'm going to dinner." And with that, he turned on his heel and stalked off.

Blaine didn't realize that his feet had practically flew up from underneath him until he was gathering up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Blaine," Artie said, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Blaine turned to his best friends and looked at them through disdained eyes. "God, you guys can be so obscene sometimes."

Neither of them had a chance to respond, because that next moment Blaine was taking off down the corridor after Kurt.

"Kurt! Wait up!"

The Slytherin boy stopped dead in his tracks after hearing his name. He turned toward the curly-haired boy and breathed in slowly. "What do you want, Blaine?"

Blaine slowly came to a stop in front of him. "Look, I'm really sorry about those guys-"

"What's their problem with me, anyway?"

"...I...I don't know. 'Something stupid about the segregation of all the houses."

Kurt's eyebrows rose, and he tried to hold back a snicker. "Segregation of houses? Is that really what you just called it?"

Blaine couldn't help but allow his lip to curl. "Well, sorry anyways."

"It doesn't matter. It makes sense; I'm in Slyherin, which means most people refuse to talk to me in the first place."

Blaine's smile fell. "What do you mean?"

"It's just this stupid stereotype that everyone has decided to place me in with the rest of the house;" Kurt took his green and silver tie in his hand. "They all assume that this makes me just like all the others: arrogant, reckless, rebellious, selfish, a no-good troublemaker."

"You don't seem like any of those things to me."

A light blush swept over Kurt's cheek. "Well..."

"You shouldn't care what other people say about you, especially if they're only jumping to conclusions about everything."

"Yeah, I know; it just gets a bit lonely sometimes, you know?"

Blaine gave him a sad look. "Really?"

Kurt shrugged.

Blaine looked away for a second, scanning the corridor to make sure they were alone. "You know, if you wanted, you and I could hang out sometime."

Kurt's eyes lit up. He nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Blaine grinned.

"That reminds me: Word had been going around that a few of the boys in your house were starting a new club?"

Blaine eyed Kurt curiously. "Yeah?"

"Have you heard anything about that?"

No I am not dead. Yes I am alive, but just barely because Season 3 of Glee is ending TOMORROW NIGHT! WHHYYYYYYY RYAN MURPHY WHHYYYYYYYY?

So, I'm out of school guys! WHOO-HOO!

My other Fic Glee: Deleted Scenes should be updated soon. If you have any prompt ideas for a scene that you'd like for me to do, please Private Message to let me know!

THANKS EVERYONE!