Chapter Three:
The two weeks that passed went by rather slowly, but within a few days a routine was set for him. Get up, do chores, go to school, head over to Mr Hans for a two hour session of taking off and putting on his jacket (which he had tried to hide one day, and say he forgot it, but Mr Hans seemed to know and made Dre go back and get it.). after that he would go home and do homework, eat an awkward evening meal with his aunt, before heading to bed. Weekends, he would get up, do chores and spend part of the morning with Mr Hans – before heading home, doing his muggle school work and doing some personal study with his magic books, years 1 through 3 that he already had.
Dre was reluctant to admit it, but he actually was enjoying his own personal magical studying – not restricted to what his professors or Hermione insisted he learnt (or in most cases, didn't learn, by Hermione once he thought about it), and his aunt had bought him several blank journals, to write down his studies of the different areas of magic.
He wasn't sure what to think of that.
Today he had decided to skip school, dragging a reluctant Mei with him, who had laughed as he dragged her through the streets. Dre wasn't exactly sure what had made him want to skip class, but he was fed up with doing the same thing everyday, not being able to explore the city within day-time hours. Dre didn't have much experience of the muggle world, despite the fact he had grown up with his aunt and (ugh) uncle, he had mostly been restricted to Privet Drive, Aunt Sherry had explained recently when he asked, that she had done it to keep him safe from strangers, who seemed to follow him around and mob them when he was very young still.
As he watched Mei on the dance-game within the arcades, he felt an something unusual; something he hadn't experienced since he had first walked into Hogwarts every year. A flare of magic. He supposed being away from it so long, after getting used to the magic surrounding Hogwarts, he was more sensitive to it. Glancing around, he sighed, maybe he had imagined it or it was all the electricity around here that he had felt in the air. He wasn't even sure if there was a magical community in this city.
Perhaps he should look into it?
Not like there was much information or anyone he could go to, to ask about it.
Mei soon pulled him out of his musings and pushed him onto dancing game, which apparently he was rather good at, well according to the score he got anyway; which was rather near to the high score that someone had managed to get on the game.
Several hours passed until they found themselves on top of a bridge, overlooking the city central square, which had a large fountain in the centre. There wasn't much to do, since a lot of places knew they were obviously of school age; chasing them out and threatening to call the authorities (or so Mei said, since his language skills weren't very good right now. He was getting better though!), it wasn't until Mei's mobile rang that Dre knew anything was wrong.
Mei's audition had been brought forward from the next day. An audition that apparently dictated the way her future was going to go. Mei's father picked her up immediately after the call, whilst Dre ran back to the school. Hoping and praying that he wasn't too late getting back, he hated breaking his promise to friends, and he had promised to be there for her audition to support her.
He managed to make it just as she was hurrying up onto the stage,
Dre leant against the back row of chairs gulping air into his lungs, damn he was out of shape! – listening to Mei play the beautiful tune that she produced, without (to him) a single wrong note or without being out of tune. Something that her teacher had been screaming about two weeks ago, when he had last seen her playing.
Cheng looked back with a smirk on his ratty little face.
Once Mei was done, Dre stepped out into the aisle as she walked up – glancing back at her father and mother, before bowing her head as she talked to him. Dre felt his heart plummet before she even spoke.
"We can no longer be friends Dre," Mei whispered in her accented English, she sounded as upset as he felt at that moment. "You…You are not good, for my future."
As Mei walked passed, along with her family, and Cheng and his friends filed passed looking triumphant, Dre sank down into the nearest chair and placed his head in his hands.
He had screwed up.
Badly.
That evening when he reached Mr Hans' house, it was once again the same routine. He was getting fed up now, and with how much other things were bothering him, he never bothered putting much effort into throwing the jacket onto the peg, and barely putting the jacket on, rather he just wrapped it around his shoulders before taking it off again.
"Something isn't right," Mr Hans stated appearing beside him, Dre looked at him tiredly and raised eyebrow. "Hang up the jacket."
Dre tiredly threw the jacket, abet lazily, onto the peg.
"No, with feeling!" Mr Hans snapped,
Dre repeated the motion, but with a sarcastic smile on his face as he threw the jacket a little harder at the peg.
"Better. Repeat."
"No! Its pointless!" Dre growled throwing his jacket to the ground,
"Pick it up." Mr Hans barked,
Gritting his teeth, Dre went to pick it up, but Mr Hans just hit it out of his hands; when Dre went to pick it up again, he was blocked by Mr Hans, flinching a little when he saw a punch aimed towards his face, instantly rising his hand to block it. He blinked at his own arm stupidly, before looking at Mr Hans, who merely stuck out again, this time Dre blocked it with his other arm. A low kick he managed to stop, hands palm down.
A kick was aimed towards his head and he instantly ducked it…as if picking up a jacket…
"Practice makes you stronger." Mr Hans stated grabbing hold of Dre's arm and squeezing, Dre hadn't noticed but his muscle definition had improved greatly since he had started practicing with Mr Hans and Sherry had started feeding him proper meals. "Muscle remembers the move, no need to think. Instincts."
Dre nodded slowly, picking his jacket up.
"Can I ask for your help with something?"
Mr Ying, Mei's father, answered the door to him – with Mei just slightly behind him. In the words that Mr Hans had practice for the past hour, Dre repeated them to Mei's father. His Chinese was slightly shaky, but he seemed to get the message across – that he was sorry for his actions, and sorry if he had dishonoured his daughter.
He also explained about how Mei had promised to attend the tournament – like he had attended her audition – and wished that she would still attend, being his only friend here in China.
Dre was informed – by Mei translating for her father – that the man would think about it, and he was to stay away from Mei until his decision was made.
He really hoped she could attend, she had already been a better friend than Ron and Hermione, even if they hadn't spent much time together.
Two updates in one evening, after years between the first chapter, i thought I best make up for it :)
Next Chapter will be up either tomorrow or Saturday, depending on how busy I get!
This chapter isn't as long as the others, but contain some important bits from the Karate Kid movie that I thought were important. I have some ideas in mind for the next few chapters and the direction that this story is going in, but any suggestions would be appreciated and noted! Any used will be thanked for in an authors note!
Review Please!
Thanks
Noon-stories-Limitied
