As the days started to blur together boredom began to get the best of William and he sent an email to Megan O'Rourke. After a day or two she finally responded suggesting that they should catch up and wander around town like they used to do in elementary school. So for the first time in at least a week, William prepared to leave the Fraser house to do something outside of his usual routine. He tugged on his most normal looking muggle clothes; khaki shorts, a plain tee shirt, and sandals and headed out to confront the day.
Inverness Lane was silent as he carefully made his way through the shaded sidewalks toward Megan's house. It was midday and the sun peeked through the various tree leaves to provide a beautiful piece of light to William's world. As he walked he nervously gripped his wand where he had tucked it into the back of his pants. He had carefully placed his wand holster on the inside of his shorts where it was concealed by his shirt and shorts but still within easy reach. William couldn't explain why but he felt it was the right thing to do, as if leaving his house without his wand would be more dangerous than if a muggle saw him using it. With a deep breath he moved his hand away from it reminding himself that there would be no reason to use it, he wasn't going to run into Henry Blackstock, the school bully, anytime soon.
Slowly he walked up Megan's drive way and mounted her front steps, casually knocking on the front door. After a few minutes Megan appeared and flashed him a braces-filled smile. Her frizzy red hair was pulled back from her pale freckled face and her glasses were thinner than William remembered.
He noticed she blushed slightly when she realized what he was staring at, "They're new," she said with another smile. "My old ones were pinching my nose and didn't look right," She added as she closed the door to her house and locked it.
William nodded,"They look nice," fell out of his mouth awkwardly and he turned to start walking. They fell into an awkward silence as they started to move down Inverness Lane towards the center of town. After a few minutes, William asked, "Is your dad teaching summer classes too?"
"Yep," She said her hands swinging out in front of her as she clapped them together, "He always does. How about your parents?"
"Same," William answered, looking down at his feet as they walked.
Another block without conversation and Megan asked, "So how's your summer been going?"
"Alright," William said honestly.
"What have you been doing? We've barely hung out," Megan asked, a slight tinge of hurt coming into her voice.
"I've been studying and practicing mostly," He said without even giving it a second thought.
"Practicing?" Megan asked confusion clear across her face, "What have you been practicing?"
William quickly realized he had never told Megan about the dueling club, or well as he thought about the lie he had invented, the boxing club. He took a deep breath and with a steady voice answered, "I joined the boxing club last year at my school."
"You box?" She nearly shouted. She stopped walking for a second to look at him closely, as if seeing him in a completely new light.
William stopped as well, starting to fidget under her gaze, he uncomfortably explained, "Yeah, a teacher thought it'd be good, to help with bullies and stuff...ya know..."
"You're still bullied at your new school?" She asked with a frown.
William nodded in response realizing he had never told her about some of the down points of going to Salem. "It's not as bad as when I first started," He explained, "Now that I can fight back a little it makes it a bit easier."
Megan frowned as she started walking again, "I guess that makes sense." She then laughed a little, "Remember that time you fought Eric?"
William smiled, "Yeah." He remembered it well, it had been the day he had received his school letter and realized that he could do magic.
Megan smiled, "People still talk about that sometimes."
"Really?" William asked, his eyebrows shot up a little. Did people think he was some kind of freak because of that fight.
"Yeah," She answered plainly, "Just the one time when Eric didn't actually win a fight. A couple of kids on the math team think it's an urban legend."
William laughed, and Megan joined him as they turned onto the main street of town. Clustered around the college were a few tightly packed streets with shops and restaurants that people regularly shopped at with a few local hangouts and others clearly geared toward the college kids. Megan asked, "Do you want to grab lunch?"
"Sure," William said, remembering that he had some birthday money in his pocket. He felt around for the crisp muggle bills in his pocket, and frowned. They felt so different to the coins of the wizarding world and they only served to remind him of just how boring the muggle world could be some days.
They quickly made their way to a street off of the main road with a diner on it. The diner had been in the town for several decades, originally a malt shop back in the fifties and shifting with the times to now be a regular local eatery. William had never been to it much before but now he realized that as a seventh grader if he hadn't gone to Salem it would almost be expected of him to be here regularly. Megan moved through the front door without a second thought and William entered a little more hesitantly.
All around the place in booths and at the counter were a mixture of high school and middle school students. He recognized a few faces who were friends of his sister's or from the cafeteria back in elementary school. Megan walked towards an empty back booth and William followed. He immediately realized as they settled away from the door on the far side of the diner that the people changed subtly. While the people at the counter and in the bigger booths by the doors were older and looked mostly like athletes the kids on this side all seemed a little nerdier.
William quickly realized that he was, at age twelve, the most athletic person on this side of the diner. There were several pudgy high schoolers who seemed to be talking about spells, but William quickly realized that they were talking about some game when they mentioned a "magic missile". A few other people were gathered around someone with a laptop and were talking about things William couldn't even begin to make sense of. He settled across from Megan who seemed a little more at ease now that they had sat down.
After a very short while a waitress came to take their orders and then they sat across from each other awkwardly. Megan then asked out of the blue, "So when do you go back?"
William shrugged, "I'm not sure yet, probably the same time as last year."
Megan nodded as she sipped on her soda, "What's it like?"
William took a gulp of his soda as he tried to think of an answer. Like always he wanted to launch into a story about how different it was, and how he could cast spells. He frowned because he realized that he didn't want to tell her about the end of the year, when his friend had nearly died and he had been so afraid of what was going to happen. He shuddered as he recalled seeing Tall Elk hurl and dismember the students with a few flicks of his wand. Finally he realized that Megan was looking at him very intently. He had been taking a lot longer to answer the question than he had been planning.
Before he got to answer though, he noticed shock register across Megan's face. The area around them had gone deathly quiet and William turned around uneasily. Coming down between the booths was Eric Grossman.
The first thing that William noticed was that Eric had gotten pretty big. He had already grown a little and his frame had widened out. William now understood why he had joined the football team, he looked like he was already wearing football pads as he stalked over. On both sides he was flanked by the same stooges who used to flank him back on the bus last year. He had a crooked smile on his face. The middle school nerds shrunk away from him, and even the high school kids seemed more nervous than they should be around someone who wasn't even a teenager.
"Well if it isn't Megan O'Rourke's little boyfriend," Eric said haughtily. His two flunkies laughed surprisingly deep laughs for their ages.
William frowned and said coldly, "Hello Eric."
"I figured you had run out of town at the end of last year," Eric laughed again, and so did the people with him.
"Nope," William said trying to put some strength into his voice. He just needed to be strong and not get picked on.
"He goes to a super-awesome private school," Megan said, leaping to his defense just like she always had in elementary school.
"You go to a special school eh Fraser?" Eric smirked. His cronies repeated the words special, and they all laughed a quiet laugh.
William stood up, realizing quickly that he barely reached Eric's shoulder, "I have a scholarship." He lied boldly.
Eric gave him a light shove, "Yeah you would get a scholarship you little nerd."
William knocked his hand away, "Leave me alone, Eric."
"Or what Fraser?" Eric shoved him again, "You going to fight me or something?"
Once again Megan leaped in and shouted, "He knows how to box now Eric, you should be careful."
William gulped trying not to blush or panic.
"Boxing?" Eric gave him a light punch on his shoulder, "Your girlfriend sounds pretty proud of you Fraser." Eric gave him another shove, "So how about it? You going to fight me Fraser?"
William tried not to groan. He quickly found his hand sliding over to his wand. He suddenly wanted to hurl any number of jinxes at Eric Grossman. He could make the boy dance or petrified or any number of things but he knew that he really shouldn't. William bit his lip, he really couldn't use any magic here.
All of a sudden he realized all eyes were on him. Everyone around him was muttering and whispering to each other wondering what was going to happen. A few kids mentioned the fight from last year and William frowned. The only reason he had been able to not get beaten up last time was that he had unintentionally used magic. As much as he wanted to use a little bit of magic he knew that he couldn't. William took a deep breath and then said as evenly and strongly as he could, "I'm not going to fight you Eric."
Eric frowned, "That's too bad." Eric made it look like he was about to turn around and William let out a sigh of relief. Only too late did he realize that everyone else had become very tense, he heard a high school student snicker.
Before he knew what was happening Eric had spun around and swung his fist into his gut. The air shot out of William's lungs like a bullet from a gun. William felt himself get lifted a little off the ground from the hit and landed back down uneasily. His hand immediately went for his wand and he was about to yank it out and shout a curse when he immediately bit down on his own tongue to stop himself. As he did, Eric slammed his fist into William's side and William stumbled off to his left.
William caught himself on the table and then took several deep breaths, trying to remember whatever he could that could help him. Quickly he realized that Eric's fists weren't much different from spells flying at him, perhaps slower even, but as he looked around at the tightly packed diner he realized he didn't have a lot of room to maneuver. Still, he had to make do with what he had. William ducked the next swing as he juked left, and then rolled out of the way of a kick, standing up before he hit the booth on his other side. As he stood he raised his arms up like his grandfather had told him to last Christmas, forearms and fists making a barrier between himself and Eric. Eric's goons had backed up a little and as Eric turned to face him William tried the Fraser Right Hook his grandfather had taught him. His fist swung wide and fast slamming with a light smacking sound into Eric Grossman's cheek. However even with all of his body behind it, William realized it was nothing compared to the football players who hurled themselves into Eric on a regular basis.
Eric was surprised though, which William tried to turn to his advantage with another punch but before he knew it Eric's friends shoved him down and Eric kicked him as he fell onto the diner's floor. As he landed hard, he could hear the owner of the diner shouting to 'Break it up' but William was a little too dazed to quite realize what was going on.
Everything else passed in a haze of confusion and shame. The owner had asked William if he was ok, and William had nodded. He had left without waiting for his food and Megan had chased after him. The two of them walked quietly home, with William rubbing what would be bruises in the next few days. As they marched forward in silence, Megan said, "Eric's such an asshole." William had never heard Megan curse before, and he looked at her. She bit her lip and blushed before justifying, "Well he is!"
William shrugged before muttering, "He's just a stupid bully."
Megan frowned, "Yeah, and he's always like that."
William nodded as he continued to stumble home with Megan beside him. When they arrived at William's house, he said, "I'll talk to you later."
Megan nodded, "Yeah, send me an email or something."
William turned and walked up to his house, turning as he closed the door. Megan was standing on the sidewalk frowning at him and he slowly closed the door. It was the last time he saw her for the rest of the summer.