Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Chapter 25, I Got All My Friends With Me
"Oh Dear! Here he is!" Filius Flitwick's voice reached Severus's ears, sounding a mix of relieved and dismayed. Then came the sound of several sets of feet rushing down the corridor. Flitwick came into view first, and without a word he hurried to set Severus to rights. With a flick of his wand, Professor Flitwick had Severus's own wand flying out of his nose and into his now free hands. Never had a wand in his hands felt so good especially after being powerless and stuck to the wall for however long it had been. It felt like hours! Thank all the gods, he hadn't had to wee before he was rescued! Severus stumbled forward, suddenly unstuck from the wall.
"Oh," Regulus groaned. "It was those Gits, wasn't it?"
"The Gryffindor Gits strike again, and my how they will pay," Raislen growled.
"No, this one is mine, Raislen," Heather snapped tightly. "They did this because of my little exchange with Potty Potter."
Professor Flitwick cleared his throat. "I hope you all know that I did not hear any of that."
"Good," Heather said grimly. "Because they have it coming."
"They have detention coming as well," Flitwick promised.
"No," Severus exploded. "If you do that, Professor, they'll just come for me harder!" That was precisely why he hated for anyone to defend him. He'd paid today, and he would continue to pay. "They can gang up on people, but they can't and won't stand for it being done to them! It's called blatant hypocrisy."
"Indeed it is," Regulus agreed. "They're a bad yet pathetic mix of cowardly and mean. How they got into Gryffindor I'll never know."
"There are many levels to the concept of bravery," Professor Flitwick said. "There is the berserker battle rage that is also a form of..." While the little charms professor philosophized about bravery with Heather, Raislen and Regulus, Severus felt his mind drifting, because he didn't care. Whatever sort of brave they were, Severus didn't value it and they made Gryffindors look bad if indeed they'd ever looked good. Dumbledore was the only outstandingly admirable Gryffindor that he was aware of anyway.
"What happened," Regulus asked.
Normally Severus would've been too embarrassed to go into all the humiliating details of what had happened. No matter that he was badly and unfairly outnumbered, it was still humiliating describing it in detail to his friends. In this case, Regulus had been used, though, so he had a right to know. They may need to work out some sort of code words so they'd know they were truly dealing with who they thought they were from now on, he thought grimly. "I suppose I shouldn't have fallen for it, but they made me think you wanted to show me something, Regulus. Clearly they got your hair and made a Polly juice," Severus said, not bothering to keep the sneer of self-disgust from his face for buying into the ruse so easily.
Regulus's cheeks flooded with red as an expression of pure rage twisted his face. "How I hate that git! You know he was in my face earlier today and I bet that's when he took my hair! You can't know how rubbish it is not to be able to trust your own family in the bloody slightest!" Considering his relationship with his own grandfather, Severus could relate. "I'm so going to pay him back for this," Regulus vowed wrathfully. "Just you wait."
"What are you planning," Raislen asked, interested.
"I haven't got that far yet, but it is going to happen," Regulus said darkly. "Right now I am too angry to think, which is a problem, because that's the time when one should be thinking at one's best.""
"Though such would certainly be helpful, it rarely happens," Professor Flitwick said cheerfully. "Anger instills the fight emotion which is geared far more toward direct action over thought. That's why most people regret those actions taken when they allow themselves to fly into a rage."
"In other words," Heather interjected gently, "Don't think like a Gryffindor."" Regulus flushed, nodding. Clearly he got the point.
Professor Flitwick chuckled. "And that is why Miss Knight is a Prefect. She has a good head on her shoulders." Severus didn't miss the appreciative look Raislen gave said head at that. Shaking his own head and rolling his eyes, Severus ran his hands over his school robes in case they needed smoothing down. After being stuck to the wall like that, he could very well look a mess for all he knew. "You're both right," he told Heather and Flitwick, "But with those gits, it's so very hard not to become angry and lose your temper in the most epic of ways."
Regulus made a wordless sound of agreement.
"And that, my dear friends, is where a little self-control comes in," Heather said. "Who laughs last, laughs best, after all."
"And there are many perks to learning a bit of self control," Flitwick added. "It makes one a far stronger wizard. Now who wants a snack? We still have a few more hours until dinner, after all."
"It just burns me up that they did that to Severus because they were too cowardly to face me," Heather fumed. "Me, a girl!"
"Or perhaps they simply aren't comfortable beating up on a girl," Regulus speculated. "Not that I am in any bloody way defending them, but perhaps that's a line even they have."
"Doubt it," Heather muttered darkly.
"So no snacks, then," Flitwick asked.
"It's not like they ever try to face us all as a group, though," Raislen said. "Sure Heather Toy and I are older, but before Regulus got here, it was still three to four. They only dared come at all of us that one time when they ruined our snowman," he recalled mutinously. Severus frowned. That was true. The fact they weren't ever trying to make things fair was no surprise, though.
"It would've still been three to three really though," Heather said. "Lupin is there but never really helps. I'm not defending him or anything," she hastened to assure. "He never tries to stop them either, which makes him just as despicable as his friends."
"Well I am giving them detention for this no matter what the rest of you do," Professor Flitwick said. "All four of them."
"Lupin wasn't present," Severus admitted reluctantly. Reluctantly because he was very tempted to let him be punished with the rest. Flitwick would take his word over theirs, and he knew it. That was why he was honest, though. He liked Flitwick and liked the fact that Flitwick liked him. Those gits weren't worth potentially ruining that over. It was far better to have the trust of someone he admired over a bit of petty revenge, even for him. This didn't stop him from savoring the brief daydream of Lupin suffering through a detention or three for something he hadn't done. It would serve him right to see how a bit of unfair treatment felt after he'd sat back so often while his stupid friends tormented Severus.
"We still have to do that Herbology thing," Heather said. "We didn't yet, because we were busy looking for you. When we couldn't find you after an hour or so, we got really worried and went to Professor Flitwick for help. He was able to work a location charm that led us to you."
"Yeah it was a neat charm to learn," Raislen said enthusiastically. "We'd have enjoyed learning it far more if we weren't so worried about you, though. Anyway, the charm works by being linked to an item owned by the person one is seeking out. I borrowed a book of yours from your dorm room. When the charm is performed on the object, a ball of light leads you to the person to whom the object belongs."
"It worked brilliantly," Regulus said. Severus shifted, suddenly overwhelmed with discomfort over being the one who needed rescuing because he wasn't good enough at defending himself. He was so rubbish at it, in fact, that he allowed himself to get bloody stuck to the wall with his wand up his nose! "If it gets dark before we find what we need for Herbology the Gryffindor Gits shall pay for that too," Heather stated darkly.
That made Severus smile. He'd been about to apologize for being the reason their Herbology assignment was delayed, but Heather's words reminded him that it wasn't his fault. "I'm lucky to have friends who care enough to look for me," he said, suddenly feeling humbled rather than embarrassed. "Thanks... To all of you." He glanced from Heather to Raislen, then to Regulus and finally Professor Flitwick.
"That's what friends are for, and some day we shall probably all need your help too," Regulus said, smiling back.
"Yeah, like right now, we could still use your help for our Herbology assignment," Heather said.
"Sure could," Raislen agreed.
"How long was I missing, anyway," Severus wondered as their little group began walking down the corridor toward the rest of Hogwarts civilization. The area James and co had chosen was so far removed from anything that Severus may not have been discovered until far later without his friends bringing a professor into it.
"Nearly two hours, I think," Raislen said.
"Sounds right," Regulus agreed. As Severus felt the rage struggling to rise up inside of him again, he reminded himself of Heather and Flitwick's words. He could still get even, but it would go far better with a cooler head.