Ch. 24: The waiting game
Hermione's story spread around the school slowly but surely. As the spring took over outside the castle, the atmosphere warmed inside. The fact that Ciel and Nezumi apparently had to have saved Shion from inevitable death worked miracles for the attitudes of the students, who were as quick to condemn as they were to forgive. The students were not quite ready to forgive Mrs Phantomhive for being a Deatheater, but they stopped insinuating that Ciel or Nezumi would have followed her tracks, had Voldemort not been stopped.
Not everybody believed Hermione's story of course, but most of the hissing whispers stopped and the hostile glares ceased almost completely before the middle of April, much to Malfoy's visible and audible disappointment. Or at least, much to his visible displeasure, when he was safely tucked away in the common room and the students from other Houses couldn't see that all those crazy stories were his job. Not only he had to suffer through the detention, the details of which have somehow leaked to the students, but also the information he got didn't cause quite as much damage as he had wished.
Ciel quietly enjoyed watching, from the corner of his eye to not be obvious, Malfoy's hissing fits at how the mudblood Granger would always destroy everything and how she deserved to burn in hell for eternity. He mentally laughed at the hateful glares that Malfoy sent towards Hermione every time he saw her. Malfoy deserved to be annoyed.
Malfoy and his proclaimed will to avenge his public humiliation was Ciel's only remaining problem. With each passing day, he was growing more and more worried and he almost hoped that Malfoy would make his move soon, or he would end up as paranoid as Mad-Eyed Moody and that Ciel did not want. It even crossed his mind that it might have been Malfoy's idea from the beginning, but he discarded it as too subtle. Malfoy would aim for something more publicly humiliating, something that would follow Ciel like the floating pumpkins and the nickname of ferret-face still followed him.
Spying on Malfoy, in order to gain information about his plans, with the help of Hamlet, Cravat and Tsukiyo didn't bring any results, other than scaring the blond a couple of times, when Sebastian showed up in his vicinity, hissing. As amusing as it was, it didn't help and, worse, it alerted Malfoy to being observed.
Ciel had spent a lot of time, together with Nezumi, discussing the possibilities and the ways of protecting himself. The most obvious answer would be to keep a number of protective spells up all the time. However, keeping up protective curses about his person non-stop would be extremely tiring and Ciel knew that he would only be able to do it for a couple of days before he would need a break and once he started, taking a break would not be an option.
Consequently, he had to keep a watchful eye on Malfoy, whenever the blond Slytherin was around, and hope that he would be fast enough to react. This constant vigilance was tiring as well and it reminded him of Auror Moody who had so gladly returned from his retirement to assist in the "investigation" and the subsequent trials. It made him shudder to remember the semi-insane wizard. However, keeping his guard up was much less tiring than keeping up protective curses and he had been doing it from the first year around Malfoy, albeit to a smaller degree.
Together with Nezumi, they reached the conclusion that Malfoy would not risk anything too similar to Ciel's little trouser-vanishing stunt, because it would be too easy to link the two together. If Ciel found himself naked or semi-naked in front of the students, he would be able to argue that Malfoy was unjustly suspecting Ciel of being the one who attacked him and trying to get back. While it would be nearly impossible to prove Ciel's guilt, proving Malfoy's would be quite easy, if Ciel acted fast enough, and Malfoy would end up it trouble.
A simple beating seemed too crude, but then again, Malfoy liked crude, as opposed to his truly devilish father. However, if Malfoy hoped to beat Ciel up, then he would have to find him alone and there were not many instances when Ciel and Nezumi weren't together, since they slept in the same room, ate in the same room, went to the same classes and had the same group of friends. The only possibility was thus when Nezumi was in the choir rehearsals, on Thursday evenings.
Nezumi suggested that Ciel goes with him, but he vetoed that idea, saying that he was not going to act like he was scared of Malfoy. He'd much rather face a beating than the taunts that Malfoy would throw at him when he got the wind of that.
They went back and forth in their arguments and arrived nowhere. The only thing Ciel could do was to wait for Malfoy's move and hope to be fast enough to avoid it. Father insisted that both his sons have appropriate education in self-defence, both magical and physical. He even extended that training to Shion as well, knowing that his sons treated him like their brother. Ciel was pretty confident in his self-defence skills, especially the magical ones, although he knew also his limits.
He really hoped that Malfoy didn't plan to beat him up.
However, April gave way to May and nothing happened. The stress of looking over his shoulder was starting to affect his concentration and it frustrated him further. Nezumi saw that, of course, but they never discussed it, not wanting to be overheard by anybody.
One afternoon, he was putting the books back onto their shelves in the library. They have been studying a bit extra for the mock exams that would arrive soon, so they stayed in the library every evening now. He was about to go back to the table, when he heard Hermione's voice on the other side of the bookshelf.
'Say, Shion,' she spoke up in the relative silence of the library. 'Do you know what's up with Ciel? He looks awfully stressed these days.' Hidden behind the bookshelf, Ciel bit his lip. If she could see it then surely so could Malfoy. He heard Shion sigh.
'He's waiting for Malfoy's revenge,' the Ravenclaw said so quietly that Ciel barely heard him. Trust Shion to be brutally honest, he thought with a mental sigh. Trust Shion to know more than he lets on, he amended, shaking his head. They avoided mentioning the matter in front of him because they knew that he would feel guilty. After all, it was on his behalf that Ciel had attacked Malfoy and escalated the conflict from barely hidden enmity to revenge.
'This is stupid,' Hermione said. 'I don't know how Malfoy can be so stubborn about his ideas and not see the truth,' she added. Ciel hoped that Shion would be able to keep a straight face at those words. The Ravenclaw was the only one to know the truth, except for Nezumi and Ciel himself. They had never even told the girls, although both Safu and Lizzy had been suspecting who was behind Malfoy's vanishing trousers. Ciel wanted to keep the number of people who knew to minimum for obvious reasons.
'Yeah, well, from my limited experience with Malfoy, he doesn't strike me as the most reasonable person in the school,' Shion replied drily and Ciel smiled slightly. I owe you one, he thought. 'I just wish he did it so that it was done and over with and we could ignore him like we did before,' Shion added. Exhaling slowly and closing his eyes, Ciel leaned his forehead against the books. How he wished that Malfoy made his move already and this would be over!
He nearly jumped out of his skin, spinning around with a wand drawn, when a hand touched his shoulder gently. His eyes met a grey gaze, where amusement was fighting with worry, as his brother raised an eyebrow at him. He sighed with relief.
'Don't do that to me,' he whispered, lowering his wand and tucking it away, trying to calm his racing heart. 'Unless you want me to get a heart attack,' he added. Nezumi smirked, although Ciel could see that he still looked worried.
'I have no desire to become the heir of Phantomhive,' he said lightly. 'In fact, in order to not have to do that, I will actively work to make sure that you don't die prematurely,' he added with a quiet laugh, ignoring the glare that Ciel shot his way. 'You know that I was not born to do those kinds of things: being the master of the manor and marrying for politics.'
'But you were raised to do that since you turned four,' Ciel growled at him. Even though it was obvious that Ciel would inherit the duties of Vincent Phantomhive, father never made any difference between them. 'So don't give me that stupid talk,' he added, still angry although he wasn't sure why. He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.
'Let's go back to the others,' Nezumi said and Ciel nodded, pressing his lips into a thin line. 'Otherwise they will send a search party, worried that we are lost,' he added, wrapping an arm around Ciel's shoulders and steering him towards the table, where Shion, Safu, Lizzy and Hermione were already waiting for them, looking slightly worried.
'Did you guys get lost?' Lizzy asked, covering her worry with a brilliant smile. Ciel fought to smile back at her, while Nezumi answered.
'Kind of,' he said in a light tone that didn't fool Ciel. If his brother was starting to get worried about him, then Ciel needed to get a grip on himself. The worried glances that the others exchanged irritated him suddenly and he shrugged Nezumi's arm off his shoulders roughly, taking his bag and leaving the library without a word.
I am not some sort of glass figurine that would break, he thought angrily, marching towards the dormitory. At least Nezumi had enough brains to not follow him and to stop the others, he thought with grim satisfaction when nobody caught up with him. Or maybe the others were smart enough to know themselves, it didn't matter. Ciel didn't feel like talking with them anyway.
Ignoring the fact that it was dinnertime, he went straight to the dormitory and closed the curtains around his bed, casting the protective spells as every evening. None of the Slytherin students slept without at least some spells to warn off possible intruders. He was too angry to sleep, but he didn't want to be disturbed and, if Nezumi thought that he was sleeping, he wouldn't try to make sure that everything was fine.
He sighed as he laid back on the soft bed, his anger evaporating slowly. Putting on the show of carelessness was getting more and more difficult and he suddenly understood what Shion might have felt earlier that year. Ciel, however, had some control over the situation. He should probably ignore Malfoy and try to forget about all the mess because Malfoy was obviously too much of a coward to do anything anyway. If he was planning to make a move, he would have made it already.
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That night, Ciel had slept surprisingly well. He woke up feeling more refreshed than he thought he could have been under the circumstances. As he removed all the protective spells from his bed and got up, the other sixth-year Slytherins also woke up and went about their morning routines. Ciel smiled slightly at his adopted brother and nodded in answer to the unspoken question.
I'm fine.
They were ready to leave the room when Malfoy opened the curtains of his bed, getting out with a murderous scowl. Ciel glanced at him and, as his eyes met the pale grey of Malfoy's, he knew. The waiting game was over. He allowed a mocking smirk to twist his lips and he left the dormitory, feeling surprisingly light-hearted.
'I would have thought you would be in a fouler mood today,' Nezumi commented lightly as they went downstairs to the common room. Ciel glanced at him, wondering if he has seen the same resolve in Malfoy's eyes as he has. If the tenseness of his shoulders was anything to go by, then he probably has, he decided.
'I feel rather relieved,' he admitted truthfully. There was nobody around them to hear, so he didn't need to bother with sarcastic come-backs and keeping up appearances. 'Though I've decided, yesterday, that I will ignore Malfoy because he will surely not make his move anymore,' he added when they reached the common room. He waved a good morning to the couple of students who were sitting there as they crossed the room without stopping.
'I see,' Nezumi muttered. 'And he chose Thursday also,' he commented without enthusiasm, because Thursday was the only day when Malfoy could be sure to surprise Ciel on his own, while Nezumi was stuck in the choir rehearsals. 'And you are going to walk into the trap?'
'I will not walk into the trap, I will walk through it, crushing Malfoy in the process,' Ciel corrected in a low voice. He almost expected Malfoy to act unpredictably and make his move earlier, but if he only needed to keep his guard up that day, then he could do it without a problem.
'As could be expected,' Nezumi muttered. Ciel glared at him, wondering if his brother was making fun of him or disapproving of his idea. He couldn't quite decipher the look that Nezumi gave him. 'However it goes, I expect you to be able to crawl your way to the Hospital Wing,' he added, looking away.
'I don't expect that it will go that far. Malfoy is a coward after all,' he replied with a little bit more confidence than he felt. 'And don't you dare putting Shion on my case,' he added, narrowing his eyes at Nezumi. 'If I have to wait for Malfoy one more day, I will go crazy and you will be the first one to notice,' he threatened. Nezumi laughed and promised that he wouldn't mention anything to Shion, nor to the girls.
The whole day passed in tense waiting. Malfoy's gaze in the morning promised violence, so he expected that the blond will surprise him after dinner, when Nezumi would be away, however, it would be foolish to not expect surprises. For the whole day he half expected that something funny would happen with his clothes, or that a spell would blast him into the furthest wall. He was almost relieved when the evening arrived.
They lingered at the table, even after Nezumi left, chatting idly. However, as Lizzy and Safu started discussing guys, Ciel looked around and noticed that Malfoy was already gone. He allowed himself a mental curse for letting Malfoy slip out of the Great Hall first, because that meant that, if Malfoy hadn't chicken out, Ciel would truly be walking into a trap.
Nevertheless, he got up, saying that he was tired and wanted to sleep. He brushed off the offer to stay in the Room with the others and made his way back to the dormitory, making an effort to keep to his usual track, rather than trying to get away.
He was walking down a deserted corridor in the dungeons, when he heard a noise behind him. Without hesitation, he whirled around, wand drawn, and cast the disarming spell on Malfoy, who was behind him. Malfoy's wand went flying out of his hand. However, before Ciel realised that the blond was smirking, his both arms were grabbed and his own wand was twisted out of his grasp.
Unhurriedly, Malfoy picked his own wand up and kicked Ciel's further away, as he walked up. The winning smirk on his face was unmistakeable. Even as he cursed mentally, Ciel allowed himself to smirk as well, because Malfoy was far from winning yet.
'So you're just going to beat me up?' he asked mockingly, pretending to try and get free to see how tight he was being held. 'I was hoping for something more creative from you,' he added in the same tone and gasped when Malfoy punched him in the stomach with an angry snarl. Crabbe and Goyle were holding him tight, he noted, breathing shallowly, waiting for the pain to subside. Calling the smirk back onto his face, he looked up at Malfoy again.
'Damn right I'm going to beat you up,' the blond hissed. 'And then I'll leave you in the Great Hall, to be found by the students tomorrow,' he promised with another blow to the stomach that would have made Ciel double up in pain if he wasn't being held so tight.
'That does assume that I will stay unconscious for the whole night, you know. Are you sure you can manage that?' he asked, keeping his tone mocking, even as the edge of pain crept into it. He gasped at the third punch, this time to his face. He could feel his nose bleed after a couple of seconds.
'Empty talk, Phantomhive,' Malfoy hissed, sounding angrier than before. 'It might have worked for Allen, but there are no teachers to help you here and let me tell you,' he paused and leaned in to whisper viciously. 'I'll take great pleasure in-' he finished with a shout of pain, because Ciel didn't wait to hear what Malfoy had to say. With his whole strength, he pushed his knee into Malfoy's groin, making the blond double up. He didn't wait for him to regain his composure either. Using the two goons as support, he pushed Malfoy away with both feet, sending him crashing against the wall.
As the blond stumbled away, Ciel focused all his hate on the two boys holding him and wished their clothes on fire. It took a moment, but, as Malfoy came back, glaring murderously, Ciel smelled smoke and, a couple of seconds later, Crabbe and Goyle screamed and let go of him.
Taking advantage of Malfoy's surprise at the sudden turn of events, he called his wand to him and cast a protective spell over himself. Crabbe and Goyle ran away, screaming.
'Now, Malfoy,' he sneered the name. 'Don't you think that's more gentlemanly to duel rather than hit somebody who cannot fight back?' he asked mockingly, watching how Malfoy cast a protective spell over himself as well.
'What is gentlemanly about throwing a curse at somebody's back?' he asked, obviously referring to the incident with the trousers.
'I don't know what you are talking about, Malfoy,' he lied smoothly, not missing the flicker of doubt in Malfoy's eyes, before they hardened into a glare. They cast the spells in the same moment and the corridor exploded in the mix of violet and red sparkles, when the two spells collided. Ciel didn't wait for the firework show to finish, before casting the next spell, which sent Malfoy crashing against the wall with a dull thud.
When his opponent didn't move, Ciel cast a new protective spell on himself and went up to the boy. With a smirk, he made a couple of words appear on the wall, above Malfoy's unmoving form, paraphrasing the expression from the Malfoy crest. Afterwards, he turned around and went to the dormitory.