A/N I see Reece's theme tune to be a song like Cupid Carries a Gun. Or The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles. Basically something off of the album The Pale Emperor. Just thought I'd be a bit random and put that in a note.
Chapter 12
Reece head into the bathroom the next day. He was tired, grumpy and really couldn't be bothered with Granger. But still, he wanted to see how the potion was doing and maybe even ask what she was brewing it for. When Reece entered the room after making sure no one saw him, he noticed Hermione sitting on the floor with her legs crossed in front of the cauldron. He walked in casually and stood in the same positon that Ron was in earlier.
"I'm presuming that it's going well?" Reece questioned as he folded his arms.
"I'm doing my best." Hermione replied as she stirred the contents cautiously. "Did you hear about Colin?" She asked, her breath catching involuntarily in her throat as she did so. Granger was definitely worried about the chamber being opened.
"Hear?" Reece forced a painful laugh as he replied. "I was the one who found him." He shook his head at Hermione whose attention was no longer on the cauldron. "Found him near McGonagall's office and told her."
"How did he look?" She asked. It was clear that Hermione was unsure about wanting the answer.
"Frozen. He was ice cold as well." Reece shook his head in denial again as his back arched off of the wall. "I advise you to be around a pureblood while these attacks are happening Granger; hopefully it won't go for you because there is someone that it wishes not to hurt right beside you."
"It?" Hermione's eyes narrowed at the fact that he was clearly withholding information. Information that would be valuable to Harry. "You said you were waiting for it that night, what is 'it'?"
"I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to Granger. Dumbledore's sworn me to secrecy I'm afraid." Reece said smugly as he made his way towards the exit. "Don't sit in here alone for too long mudblood, you never known when it will strike without its master there to stop it."
Much to Reece's dismay, Snape had physically dragged him to the duelling club that he was going to give a miss. The reason he wasn't going to go was a simple one. Gilderoy Lockhart. The head of Slytherin house said that he wanted a capable student there to take on a pupil of Lockhart's choosing. So alas, Reece was stuck standing between Draco and Goyle towards the far end of the hall looking as bored as ever.
"Gather round!" Lockhart shouted over the chattering students. "Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me?" Reece wanted to kill Snape for making him attend. "Excellent. In light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves – as I myself have done on many countless occasions. For full details, see my published works."
Hell no. Lockhart threw his cape at a couple of Gryffindor girls who caught it and began squabbling over it. "Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape." Snape stepped up looking quite bored as he drew his wand. "He has sportingly agreed to help with a short demonstration. Now I don't want any of you youngsters to worry; you'll still have your potions master when I'm through with him. Never fear." The two men held up their wands, bowed and walked in opposite directions to take up their positions.
"This ought to be good." Draco whispered smugly as they all got a glimpse of the expression on the face of their head of house.
"One." Lockhart said as the two positioned themselves in a duelling stance. "Two." Crabbe and Goyle sniggered. "Three."
"Expelliarmus!" A light shot out of Snape's wand and hit Lockhart square in the chest. Gilderoy flew back with a scream and a lot of the boys in the room suddenly got the giggles.
"An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape." For once Reece had to agree with what he was saying. "But if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious what you were about to do." Snape seemed to find that comment amusingly insulting. "If I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy."
"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor." Snape suggested, putting the idiot in his place.
"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape." Lockhart smiled a fake smile and walked away from his assistant. "Let's have a volunteer pair." He looked at the crowd of students, his eyes focusing on Harry. "Potter, Weasley, how about you?" Harry started to move out of the crowd and Ron was about to follow when Snape piped up.
"Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Ron seemed to be quite disappointed at the fact he wasn't allowed, whereas Draco snorted at the blunt insult. "Might I suggest someone from my own house?" Lockhart looked to be a bit disgruntled by the question but went along with it. "Lestrange, perhaps?" Snape whipped round and Reece didn't argue before exiting the crowd. He pulled out his wand and moved so he and Potter were just inches apart.
"Wands at the ready." Lockhart commanded as both boys held up their wands. The two then brought their wands down swiftly and turned without a bow. "On the count of three," Harry took up the position Snape had earlier but Reece just pointed his wand at his opponent lazily. "Cast your charms to disarm your opponent. Only to disarm, we don't want any accidents here." Reece widened his stance a little and thought of a better spell to use. "One. Two," Just for the hell of it Reece decided to cheat a little.
"Everte Statum!" The spell hit Harry quickly and he went flying backwards with multiple backflips due to the sheer force. Every Slytherin smiled as he hit the ground but the rest of the students looked on, worried. Potter wasn't done however, and rose to his feet quickly while waving his wand.
"Rictusempra!" Harry screamed as a spell blasted out of his wand. If it was Draco up there facing Potter he would have been hit by the spell. But he wasn't, Reece was. As the light came streaming towards him Reece quickly cast a weak silver shield that was able to block the attack and send it back in the direction of the caster. Harry was hit by yet another spell and flew back so far he hit the hall floor. He clambered back up the stairs, and Reece was walking backwards away from his position when Snape grabbed the back of his robe and shoved him forward.
"I said disarm only!" Lockhart yelled, attempting to restore order in the situation.
"Serpensortia!" Reece smirked as he muttered the spell. A large python flew out of the end of his wand and began slithering speedily towards Harry.
"Don't move Potter, I'll get rid of it for you." Snape said lazily as he strode towards the snake.
"Allow me, Professor Snape." Lockhart said with enthusiasm. The potions master stopped in his tracks and watched the Defence Professor judgementally. He passed Harry and moved towards the snake. "Alarte Ascendare!" The snake shot up into the air, almost hitting the hall ceiling as it did so, and then fell back down and landed where it had previously been. The snake was even more riled up and looked at Harry. Potter stepped forward and began whispering to it as it turned to stalk a Hufflepuff at the front of the crowd.
"Don't attack him." Reece was the only one who could understand what he was saying and watched on with a smirk. It continued to advance on Justin Flinch-Fletchley who was now stepping back with fear written all over his face. "Get away from him." The snake turned to look at Harry and did what to others was to be a hiss.
"Apologies." The snakes said as it shut its mouth.
"Don't listen to him." Reece walked forward swiftly with fury in his eyes. It was a snake that he summoned. His snake. Not Potter's. "I summoned you, so you'll do as I command."
"Of course master." The snake hissed quietly, not sure which direction to look. Reece bent down beside the snake and began stroking it. It looked as if Reece had calmed down the snake and Harry had been egging it on. Things would not be good for a certain golden boy.
"Vipera Evanesca." Snape said suddenly, shooting a spell past Reece. The snake disintegrated within seconds and the crowd broke out into whispers. Harry frowned at Reece, bewildered at the fact he wasn't the only one able to speak to the snake.
"What are you playing at?" Justin shouted once he was sure the snake had been killed. "If it wasn't for Lestrange that thing could have killed me." Reece smiled and nodded his head politely to the panicked Hufflepuff. Even though Harry wasn't the one egging it on, Reece wasn't going to tell others different.
When Reece got back to the common room Daphne, Pansy and Blaise dragged him aside. Pansy seemed to be much happier than she apparently had been after Draco's whole blow up, but the three were looking at him rather doubtfully nonetheless.
"You're a parselmouth Lestrange?" Zabini asked with his eyebrows raised. Reece simply shrugged and tried to move away, but Pansy grasped his arm tightly and pulled him back. "Don't walk away, you owe us some sort of explanation."
"No Zabini, I don't owe you shit." Reece yanked his arm out of Pansy's grip and stormed away from the trio. Everyone was always so nosey. He was tired, annoyed and stressed out all at the same time and it wasn't a combination for him. Not at all.
After pretty much slamming to portrait behind him, Reece set off down the quiet corridors in search for someone – anyone to piss off on their way past. He was about to head off to the common room as it was getting late, but luckily came across a small Ravenclaw named Terry Boot. Terry was walking down the same corridor in the opposite direction and as the two crossed, Reece stuck his foot out. Boot was unaware of this and tripped over the sudden barrier in his path. He flew forward and hit the ground roughly, sliding a few inches across the floor. Boot whimpered slightly and Reece stood with his back facing the Ravenclaw. He looking over his shoulder slowly and noticed Terry attempting to get back to his feet again.
"Come on Tezza, it was just a little fall." Reece teased as he turned and approached the boy who was now on his knees, taking the dirt out of the grazing on his hands. Terry froze as he heard the menacing footsteps nearing him instead of leaving. Reece grabbed handfuls of his hair and pulled him up onto his feet violently. Boot whimpered again as he felt the sting of the grazing on his left knee and Reece let go of his hair, setting himself up for a good hit. Just as he was about to knock the air right out of the poor boy he was stopped by sound nearing footsteps.
"Leave him alone." Commanded a bossy little voice that sound distinctly like… Hermione Granger. Reece turned to notice the Gryffindor standing at the end of the corridor with her wand pointed at him. She had just been to check the potion and was on her way back to the common room when she heard the painful cry of a boy.
"Piss off mudblood and let me have my fun." He turned to Terry, but growled in frustration when he saw the Ravenclaw limping down the corridor as fast as he could. "Oh that's just brilliant." Reece sighed angrily while pointing to him with a quick, fierce wave of the arm.
"Why do you have to be such a bully?" Hermione said in an exasperated tone as she tightened the grip on her wand. "You're so horrible Lestrange, he didn't do anything to you."
"It's in my blood. Even the hat said that it was my blood that defined me. I'm in Slytherin. Malfoy's supposed to be my best friend and I'm apparently only just living up to the family name. I've got quite a lot on my plate if you've failed to notice." Reece ranted heatedly as her glare softened ever so slightly. "I can't bottle up my frustration like you do Granger. Boot was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Having the surname of Lestrange doesn't give you an excuse to bully people. If you're that angry you've got to learn to deal with it differently." Hermione trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.
"What would you know?" He spat in reply. "I'd get burned off the family tree just for talking to you like I am now. But lucky me, I can't get burned off because no one has access to the family home. Why? You might ask, because my father's in Azkaban because he was caught torturing the pissing Longbottoms." She tried to open her mouth to say something, but ended up shutting it as she was at a complete loss for words. "You can't expect me to become a good guy like yourself Granger. Guys like me aren't supposed to be golden boys, we're expected to be sophisticated arseholes."
"There's a difference between being what you're expected to be and being a bully." Hermione quickly tucked away her wand and walked past him. Reece stood frozen, not knowing how she got through to him like she did. Perhaps befriending her and being burned from the family tree wasn't so bad. It's not like he knew any of them anyway.