Alice hurried to draw her own wand—and Beckly's followers did as well.
"Ohhh—getting a girl to fight your battles for you?" Beckly mocked, tilting his head caustically and nodding toward Alice.
"Zander's beat you one-on-one already—I'm just evening it out more now," Alice snapped at him, stepping forward and joining by Zander's side. "Since you had to bring your whole gang this time. Coward."
"I don't need her help, either," Zander growled, glaring intensely into Beckly. "Try me."
None of them noticed another student wandering out of the castle, venturing across the clearing and surveying the scene with interest.
"Didn't your snake of a father tell you not to hang around with the poor Irish filth anymore?" Beckly quipped nastily. "It's no wonder. You can't even keep her in check."
"That's right. Nobody can!" Alice snarled, instantly losing her temper. "Incendi—!"
"Wait!" Zander hissed—jutting out an arm and blocking her wand.
Everyone halted—only just noticing that a new student was standing before them all, positioned perfectly between Alice and Beckly.
The student was around the same age as them, slender with sandy-blond hair that was considerably darker than Zander's. He appeared calm, his hair short and fashioned in a spiky style to contrast Zander's slicked-back hairs, and he had a pair of bottle green eyes behind a pair of small, transparent glasses, a Hufflepuff scarf around his neck, his expression peaceful and oddly nonchalant.
Beckly and his followers traded odd glances with each other, ogling the new student in confusion and muttering disdainfully under their breaths.
Zander and Alice wore similarly baffled visages, glancing subtly at one another.
"We saw him at sorting, right?" Alice whispered. "Right after we got here and all the first years were sorted—then they sorted this bloke."
"Right," Zander murmured, nodding and only just remembering the event. "Because he's a transfer student…"
"Oy! New blood!" Beckly hollered at the mystery student. "You wanna get outta the way?! You're gonna get hexed if you don't!"
The mystery student blinked, perking his brow at Beckly and not moving an inch.
"Ve do things differently in Durmstrang," the student replied easefully, his voice smooth and carrying a hint of an accent. "When ve see someone being outnumbered, ve don't stand by and do nothing."
"Well—you're not in Durmstrang anymore, you German twat," Beckly groused, aiming his wand at the transfer student. "Welcome to Hogwarts. Bombarda—!"
"Schützen!"
The German student whipped out his wand in a flash—barely shielding himself in time. Beckly's spell exploded against what appeared to be an invisible barrier, making everyone else reel back at the rattling noise.
Just when they opened their mouths to cast further spells—
"What is going on here?"
Everyone fell suddenly still and silent—as Trocar Crowley was marching out of the castle now, striding toward them briskly with his black cloak shifting along in his wake. His differently-colored eyes narrowed sharply at the Gryffindors, then shifted over to the other three, looking to all of them for an explanation.
"W-we were just practicing," Alice lied with a smile, gesturing casually with her wand. "Everyone from the dueling club wanted to fine-tune their skills a bit outside of class, so we're all sparring. That's all."
Crowley stared at her almost invasively. "That's all, Alice?"
"Yes. It is," Zander agreed with a nod, reluctantly stuffing his wand away.
"Right," Beckly mumbled, hiding his wand as well. "The new kid was thinking of joining the dueling club, too. Just showing him the ropes is all."
Crowley gave him a long, suspicious glare, then turned his gaze toward the transfer student.
"Tobais," he said seriously. "Is that true?"
All eyes fell on the transfer student—Tobais—and he gave the professor a simple smile.
"It is, yes," Tobias affirmed politely. "I vas wondering how the clubs here worked, and zey were curious about German spells, so ve all decided to educate one another in our spare time."
Crowley's skeptical glare ventured from person to person, remaining silent for a moment and reading all of their expressions. Then, he sighed and looked to Tobias again.
"I know you've only been here for a week or two, but you should know—these two," Crowley explained, pointing between Beckly and Zander. "Are my top fighters in the dueling club. They're also at each other's necks all the time. So—if you plan to spar, I'd recommend you don't stand between these two. You'd be better off sparring with Alice. She's a fellow Hufflepuff, and she's got a knack for elemental magic, if you really want to learn new things."
"Danke, Professor," Tobias said kindly.
"Aye—that's a good idea. I can teach you how to do some fire magic. Let's go," Alice proposed, hurrying to escape from the situation. "C'mon, you guys."
She grabbed Zander and Tobias by the arms, nudging them along.
The three of them trekked away together, strolling across the clearing and leaving the scene behind, thankfully doing so without being questioned by Crowley any further.
Alice, Zander, and Tobias thumped down the stone stairs, marching atop the dirt path that stretched on past the clearing, and none of them spoke until they were well out of everyone else's earshot.
"Well that was close," Alice sighed, shaking her head and smacking Zander's arm. "Why're you so quick to jump in fights with him? He's not worth it."
"Ah—beg my pardon?" Zander snarked. "You're the one who jumped in for no reason. It had nothing to do with you."
"Pff, yeah—somebody's threatening my friend and it has nothing to do with me," Alice grumped, rolling her eyes. "You're so clueless, it hurts."
"Ah-huh. Speaking of jumping in for no reason," Zander muttered, turning and eyeing Tobias with intrigue. "Why did you feel the need to do that? Because I can handle Beckly. I've done it a million times before."
"Well—he doesn't know that," Alice reminded Zander. "He's only been at Hogwarts since this year started. What's that—maybe two weeks?"
"A veek and six days," Tobias remarked. "And, I am sorry. I didn't mean to intrude on your business… but Durmstrang is a tough school compared to here. Even the weakest of us don't tend to shy away from things very much."
"I didn't know Durmstrang was German," Alice uttered.
"It's not," Zander and Tobias replied in unison.
"Durmstrang takes students from all over, practically from anywhere that Hogwarts doesn't," Tobias explained. "Vhich is why it is such a big school. I'm interested to see more of Hogwarts, though. It's very different here."
"Well… we can show you around," Alice offered, giving him a sweet smile. "Oh… and you're gonna love Hogsmeade."
"Zat is very nice of you," Tobias replied warmly. "You… your name is Alice, yes?"
"Yeah, and this is Zander."
"Ah. Very good to meet you."
"You too!" Alice grinned, feeling excited at making a new friend, as it was something she and Zander never really did before. "Oy—how come you moved here, anyway? Transferring students doesn't really happen a lot."
"My parents lost their business back home, but they found a good job in London," Tobias told her. "So, here I am."
"Ohh, that makes sense. My dad has his own business too," Alice responded. "He runs the O'Heiden Carnival on the Aran Islands in Ireland. It's a bit of a popular meeting place for wizards in the area. I bet you'd like it there. It's really fun."
As the two Hufflepuffs traded friendly chatter back and forth—Zander walked a short distance ahead of them, rolling his eyes and huffing out a breath, feeling irritated for reasons unknown.
The three continued to walk aimlessly across the expansive grounds, stepping over grass and more dirt paths—and the longer Alice conversed with Tobias, the more agitated Zander became, walking along in silence for nearly twenty minutes.
"Oh," Tobias breathed, slowing to a stop at the edge of the steep hillside, gazing at the massive tree in the distance. "Vhat is that?"
Zander was stopped a short ways ahead of him, sliding his hands into his robe and nodding down at the moving tree. "That is the whomping willow."
"Ooo—and it's our way to the shrieking shack!" Alice beamed, tugging on his sleeve. "C'mon!"
"Nooo—no no no," Zander grumped, yanking her back. "I know you're insane, and you don't care for sentiments like this—but I'd like to do as little dying today as possible."
"There's three of us now," Alice argued. "I think we can take the whomping willow."
"Now, that is really unfair," Zander griped caustically. "You're volunteering me and a perfect stranger to go and fight a sentient tree—"
"He's not a stranger. He's our new friend," Alice said, then blinked and turned to Tobias. "I mean—if he wants to be."
"I vould love new friends," Tobias smiled at her.
Alice beamed—Zander turning away and rolling his eyes, resisting the urge to audibly groan.
"We can just wait for the Hogsmeade visits to start," Zander proposed. "Then we could find another way to the shack from the village. It'd be far less dangerous that way."
"Ughh—but you say that every year," Alice complained, moaning and tossing her head back.
"C'mon." Zander turned on his heel, marching off and making a loose wave, gesturing for her to follow. "We've got homework. Let's go."
He strolled away with Alice in his wake, hoping to head off to the Slytherpuff room without Tobias following them all the way there—but, despite the long and roundabout routes he took through the castle, Tobias stayed with them the whole way.
So, Zander sighed, simply resolving to do his studying in the great hall instead.