Disclaimer: Anything you recognise from JK Rowling's works are hers…

Chapter Eighteen . A Lesson in Bulllying For Victims

Leonis waited by the classroom door that Isah had suggested for meeting him. He was quite early and rather jumpy and nervous. Since punching, and breaking, Adonis' nose he had been avoiding his Gryffindor counterparts.

Isah Slytherin was fashionably late. Leonis was so jumpy and nervous he though the Slytherin had set him up and could not hide the relief when he saw the other boy.

"Calm down, why don't you?" Isah drawled menacingly as he opened the classroom door and shoved Leonis in uncermonsily.

"I'm sorry. I thought that…"

"You thought I had abandoned you?" Isah snarled. "Charming our little Gryffindor has abandonment issues."

Leonis sighed and sat down in a chair and pointedly glared at the other boy. "You don't nearly scare me as much as your father," Leonis pointed out coldly.

Isah snorted violently and flopped lazily into a chair. "Yes well he's enough to frighten just about anyone… except my mother."

Leonis grinned back. There was something strange about the way Isah spoke and acted. Although his words were often cutting they didn't seem to have the same barbed edge as the bully's comments. He supposed that Isah spoke out of habit or out of some twisted artostoic humour.

"First lesson…"

"I thought the first lesson was yesterday don't hesitate to call myself Gryffindor," Leonis quipped.

Isah snorted and then chuckled. "No interruptions, you're my pupil for the next half hour."

"And I'm excited already Magister Slytherin." Leonis was grinning. What was coming over him? He was smart mouthing the son of Salazar Slytherin! And enjoying it.

Isah struggled to maintain a straight face, smoothing his robes in the process. "Yes today apprentice Gryffindor…"

"You do know I'll reverse the role on you?"

"Could you please stop interrupting?" Isah pleaded.

"Okay, only if you inisit Magister Slytherin."

"I insist," Isah said sternly trying to do his father's famous glare, which only made Leonis chuckle behind his hand. "Today I will teach you how to behave like a real Gryffindor aristocrat and how to handle your bully problem."

Leonis face fell and he smile shyly somewhat embarrassed.

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Leonis and Isah spent a good deal of time 'role playing' as Isah was fond of saying. This process Leonis found strange and uncomfortable. The situations Isah deliberately put him in were frighteningly real and the other boy had a sharper tongue than that of his Gryffindor adversaries.

The swapped roles after a while and Leonis, amongst his shy instruction began to teach Isah the fundamentals of lock picking. Isah was terribly excited over being able to do muggle thieving techniques even though he knew his father would be more than likely furious with his acquisition of new skills.

Carlotta joined them after lunch, Leonis had remembered to bring his extra texts and found himself embarrassingly teaching the other two history and letting them copy his notes from Godric's lecture.

"You write so well," Carlotta murmured scribbling furiously on a spare piece of parchment she had conjured. "I don't know how you can listen to your father and write at the same time."

"Handwritings little to be desired," Isah rejoined mumbling dryly. His eyes momentarily flicked upwards to Leonis' stunned face, something in the depth of his orbs was laughing at him!

"My apologies your lordship, but you've had more practice than me oh – great – son – of – Lord – Slytherin," Leonis blithely commented sticking his nose in the air mimicking Bedivere's superior expression.

Isah's lips twitched then before he could stop himself he was grinning like a fool. The Gryffindor bastard was just as much fun as his father said Godric had been when they were younger. He rarely heard those stories about his father. Only when his father was in a good mood, half asleep in front of the hearth with a glass of firewhiskey… only then his father told him tales of the curious Gryffindor founder.

"If you don't watch it," Leonis mockingly waved his finger under Isah's nose. "I will be forced to give you a nose to match his high-great-and-mighty Lord Adonis Covington."

Isah laughed clutching his stomach. Leonis was eerily speaking and gesturing like a mock form of Bedivere. "Lesson number nine: don't let the Gryffindor Goons know you are mocking them!" Isah chortled. "Or you will have a matching nose just like Covington."

Leonis grinned lop sided and his eyes flashed. "I know," he said seriously. "I just hope my father will be able to fix my nose when they do decide to break it."

"Boys," Carlotta sighed rolling her eyes to the ceiling. "Look Leo no one is going to touch you. They wouldn't dare. You're Godric Gryffindor's son."

"I'm Godric Gryffindor's bastard son," Leonis murmured looking sadly from one to the other. "I am the lowliest student in this school."

"No you're not," Isah said throwing his hands up.

Leonis glared back at his new 'friend' somewhat doubtfully.

"It's Fitzsimmons. He's ugly…," Carlotta cheerfully stated. "And you have well not your father's, but good looks from somewhere…"

"And he's lazy and Lady Ravenclaw probably would have difficulty finding fault with you," Isah added slyly.

"Except I am a bastard and I've tarnished my father's good name."

Isah snorted indifferently. "You can hardly help being an illegitimate son of one of the greatest wizards of his age."

"And Fitzy is a bastard too," Carlotta snarled smiling. "Those Gryffindor 'lordlies' as we like to call them are a bunch of hypocrites. Most of them have illegimate siblings somewhere."

Isah nodded slowly. "'tis shocking but true."

Leonis smiled wryly. "Thank you."

Isah winked and stood gracefully brushing of his robe. "Anytime. Now I must leave before my dear father gets suspicious."

Carlotta and Leonis watched him leave as they half heartedly packed up Leonis' books and notes. "A suspicious Slytherin is not a good thing," Carlotta murmured. "Not good at all."

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Leonis and Isah was an odd pair of friends. Isah was not always friendly towards Leonis by any means but most times he was polite if indifferent if they somehow met in the halls.

Leonis held the suspicion that Isah was petrified of his father finding out he had befriended him. At first that realisation had stung. However Leonis soon rid himself of those feelings; he was lucky that Isah saw fit to even look his way. He also was worried that Isah only saw him as a means to an end and was afraid he would lose his companion once the other boy tired of him.

Carlotta was just about the same. She didn't overtly draw attention to her affilation with Leonis or other Slytherins. But Leonis was wise enough to know this was a survival technique so that the other girls did not harass her over any behaviour they deemed wrong.

Carlotta was intelligent girl and she helped Leonis out a lot during potions, however Leonis didn't find himself craving for her companionship like he did Isah. He assumed that this was because she was a girl and Isah was the first boy he remembered that he was on friendly terms with. Isah was a boy with whom he could compete with, laugh with and talk to man to man.

It was one of those rare days that Isah and Leonis were walking lazily just in the fringes of the Forbidden Forest so they had less likelihood of being spied.

Isah was making horrid suggestions about the feasibility of Edward Bedivere (the eldest of the Bedivere children and Mortimor's brother), when they first heard the snapping of a twig.

Leonis was on edge since a run in with Malcom two days pervious and whipped around wide eyed. Isah was pale and was at Leonis' side in a moment.

"Do you want to repeat that for me, snake tongue?" Mortimor asked stepping out from behind a tree his usual goons were beside him.

Isah's hand flew to Leonis' shoulder. "Run," he whispered in Leonis' ear.

Leonis shook his head even though he thought his heart had stopped beating. He dearly would like to run but he looked back at Isah and decided he could not leave his friend.

"Run," Isah hissed something akin to desperation in his voice. "They'll hurt me less than you."

"I c-cc- can't leave you," Leonis whimpered blinking furiously as if that could chase away his fear. What did his father tell him?

Do not run away from your fear. You'll only overcome fear when you face it… Besides if you run away I'll come for you and send Grandpappa onto you…

Mortimor crack his knuckles in a threatening manner and stepped forward. His lips were in a tight line as he converged slowly towards his prey. The remaining three Gryffindor boys, Hannibal Forbes, Malcom MacKinley and Adonis Covington, were scowling deeply but both Isah and Leonis could see the satisfaction in there eyes as they fanned out blocking any means of escape.

"Move, bastard," Mortimor leered as Leonis stepped in his way to stop him from punching Isah.

Leonis shook his head and shoved his wand right under Mortimor's nose. "Don't mess with me Bedivere," he said in a shaking voice.

Mortimor stared at the wand for a moment in disbelief before laughing cruelly. He batted Leonis' limp arm away and punched the small boy violently in the stomach. Leonis doubled over choking with pain that ripped through his belly. He was half aware of Mortimor striding over the top of him.

Isah watched in horror as Leonis, who was half the size of Mortimor, tried to block the angry Gryffindor from getting to him. No one had ever but their neck on the line for him without an ulterior motive. Yet Leonis, who had nothing to gain but a black eye, was trying to protect him.

Shocked Isah witnessed the young Gryffindor boy clasp his belly with a grunt and fall aside harmlessly. He shook his head. Poor brave fool. 'Lesson number sixteen: if Mortimor or any other party stronger than you wants to kill or maim someone else don't get in the way,' he thought uselessly. 'Should have taught him that one.'

"Hello, Isssssssaaaahhhh," Mortimor leered drawing out Isah's name slowly and delibereately. Isah glanced up and immediately knew he was in dreadful trouble.

"No!" a voice cried behind Mortimor's back. Before Isah or Mortimor could move Leonis had jumped onto the older boys back and brought him down with a crash.

Horrified Isah watched as the two Gryffindors wrestled in the foliage. Mortimor's fists were flying and connecting with any exposed part of Leonis' body. A part of him was screaming this was his moment to run away. But another looked upon Leonis with pity and wanted to block out the pathetic cries from Leonis' lips… Could he leave Leonis here alone to deal with his problems?