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Alaric had created a routine for his time in Hogwarts routine by this point of the school year— he would wake up in the mornings and explore the castle until breakfast, at which point he would join his friends in the Great Hall. Classes would come next which would take up most of the day and he would spend the rest of the night studying after dinner had concluded.
It had been quite easy to put an hour of meditation before and after sleep into his schedule, and the routine should help him organize his mind from what had read about so he had no qualms wasting time on seemingly boring exercises either. The truth of the matter was that with his explorations into the Mind Arts through a proper book this time, he had just become far more interested in learning it. He was fairly sure Daphne had seen through his farce but had not called him out on it so far.
He had taken by now to reading third-year material in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, and Charms. He had not run into any significant setbacks yet but further studies into the fundaments had been put on hold with his growing interest in other branches of magic— the references in his book had been frequently mentioning the Arithmancy so he supposed that he would need to brush up what he knew about it soon and he already had plans to learning warding proper so that he could enchant his own room.
The sheer amount of studying would have been overwhelming for any other boy his age, it was a hobby that he genuinely enjoyed from his perspective. The only problem was that the time he was forced to reduce the time he usually devoted to the fundamental branches as he explored other branches of magic, but he had already decided that he would burn that bridge later.
His night that day had been spent in the room he had discovered— practising magic and exploring the prospects of learning enchantment proper to create a hideout all for himself. He had woken up tired so Alaric had been only mildly baffled when Tracey had returned late to the common room the next day. The bubbly brunette was almost never late to join their group.
Both he and Daphne had shrugged at the time but they had quickly realized that something was wrong when the girl had not returned on time during the evening that day and had looked troubled throughout the day, having barely spoken a word in the classes. This feeling of dread only increased when Alaric and Daphne were making to return from their dinner. The door to the common room entrance slid open and Tracey walked down the room all on her lonesome, down the passage to the dorms and out of sight— there was an obvious frown marring her face and without hesitation, Daphne got up to follow her.
For his part, the Peverell made to stand too but Daphne shot him a look that clearly suggested it was better if she did this herself. Five minutes later, Daphne returned looking positively furious, the frown on her face radiating an amount of emotion that would never have slipped through her mask on normal occasions.
"What happened?" Alaric asked at once, casting the quiet silencing charm around them a second after speaking. If the blond was surprised by the level of magic he had just displayed then she did not let it show on her face, her frown remained in place.
"What happened is that a bunch of upper years just warned Tracy not to taint with her blood-traitor ways this morning and it happened again just now. The House Slytherin had just lost fifty points for Malfoy's deeds and it seems that someone figured that Tracy had something to do with it!"
Alaric paled as he quickly scanned the room, making sure nobody was coming within range of the boundary of his privacy spell. One face stood out, and what gave Macnair away for the most part the glint in his eyes that he failed to mask. Alaric could barely remember interacting with the older boy before but he had heard of him— besides, the smug look on his face might be concealed but he could almost see the internal smirk that he was struggling to hold.
That was when it clicked— there was no way anyone could have known they had been the ones to snitch on Malfoy and lost Slytherin all those points, but that did not mean others could not take advantage of it. Macnair and his gang of crooks had seen an opportunity and simply pushed all the blame on a convenient target without any evidence.
"I'll kill him!" he hissed, flicking his wand into his hand even as Daphne's hand closed around his wrist in a vice grip, he paused and made sure to accentuate each syllable despite knowing it was not entirely his rational mind speaking, "Daphne, let me go!"
"No!" she hissed, shifting her position so she could look him in the eye. "Alaric Peverell, you have to calm down! You challenge an upper year in the common room in front of everybody!"
Alaric would have been eternally grateful for both the grip strength Daphne had developed from brewing potions since the age of seven as well as her incomprehensible mental restraint when dealing with his antics had he been calmer. But he was not, so he decided to apologize properly to the blond later and wrenched away his hand from her grip. "Watch me!"
"Oi, Macnair!" His voice cut through the common room and the entire group of upper years turned around collectively to face the source of the sound. The boy in question was lanky and looked vaguely annoyed upon seeing him. Alaric couldn't quite place why for he was sure he had never actually met this boy.
"Yes?" The older boy turned towards him and raised a mocking brow when he saw a lone first-year walking towards him with a furious glint in his amethyst eyes.
"You have been giving my friend trouble for no reason at all." To Alaric indignation, the older body's face scrunched up as he tried to think what the boy could be talking about. It took a moment to remember this boy was the one who had antagonized him back in his first day at Hogwarts. He continued, his voice level, "Tracy Davis, she has done nothing wrong,"
Well, they had but he was sure that none of them had caught onto that fact. The only reason why this had escalated was because of house rivalries— even though he was not interested in the squabbles of small teenagers, Alaric knew enough about the house that Macnair was a traditionalist whose views on blood sometimes bordered on extremism. It did not take a genius to connect the dots and conclude that the older boy had simply wanted to make an example out of someone whom he considered inferior, everything else had just been an excuse.
"Oh, that blood traitor?" The older boy's brows rose further into his hairline and his two friends whom Alaric did not recognise looked none too pleased at being questioned by a first-year, "Looking to defend the lowly, are we? Not that it matters, I shall not allow rats to fester inside this den of snakes. We were in comfortable lead before but we have now lost our advantage because someone snitched on Malfoy. "
"I don't appreciate people hurting my friends. I do not care for your contrived schemes or your bigotry, Macnair," Alaric's voice was a low whisper, and he ignored how the boy stepped closer to him in a menacing sort of manner.
The Peverell logically knew that he should be more rational, but he was not— instead, he was furious. Perhaps things had not escalated far enough to warrant a direct confrontation yet, but Tracy was being questioned and targeted just because of something that someone from her house might have done and he certainly knew that something that had not been his bubbly friend's fault.
His own behaviour took him completely by surprise, there were very few things that could genuinely break through his mask of calmness. But he had few people he genuinely appreciated here, and the anger he felt on her behalf was like a torrent of fire rising up in his chest and sticking out a fiery tongue that almost broke through his mask of calmness.
He had considered house rivalries a waste of time before, a mere play of teenagers pretending to be great schemers but his opinion was worthless if everyone around him was part of the system and actively empowered it. His hands clenched into fists as he tried very hard to resist the urge to wave his wand and deal with the upper years using the force of might. But a single glance from the corner of his eye told him that he had already been surrounded, he would have observed the moment instantly but anger had clouded his better judgement and the two of his friends had already moved to flank his side.
He knew he could take on any of these three boys on his lonesome, but the trio working together from different directions was another thing entirely. The other two would attack from the side even if he instantly defeated the one directly in front of him. It was clear that the most rational move right now was to de-escalate but the feeling brewing inside his stomach was just so intense, he could not even tell if it was concern over one of his only friends or the tension that had been brewing at the back of his mind since the last several days.
One of the nearby torch brackets suddenly exploded— spewing flames straight towards Macnair, whose eyes widened as he dove to the side. Alaric froze for a moment and just stood there wide-eyed at the result of his rage even though the tempting warmth of power that had been coursing through his body just a second ago slowly started to fade. It was as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over his head, had his magic automatically reacted to his emotions? But it had been so long since he had lost control over his power.
A wall of force slammed suddenly into his chest before his thoughts could reach a logical conclusion and he suddenly felt weightlessness as his entire body flew backwards and slammed hard into the stone floor a moment later. Pain coursed through his body as most of his bones creaked, and he could barely make out one of the older boys marching towards him now while the other leaned over the fallen Macnair whose entire face looked signed as he groaned in pain.
Judging by the looks of fury on their faces, they both clearly thought he had somehow caused the explosion. Alaric tried to get up but he couldn't, and it was not that they would listen to his explanation even if he could.
It was not that the pain had clouded his senses so much that he could not respond. Alaric could not properly breathe and without the necessary oxygen, his brain did not seem to be sending and receiving signals at the same pace. He could think and move, but his body seemed choppy and was operating at a lower rate of success than usual. The wind had just been forcefully knocked out of him and he was short on oxygen.
"Protego!" A male voice he could barely register called out clearly, and a translucent barrier of magic shimmered into being between Alaric and his older assailant before he could release the curse that had been brewing on the tip of his wand. "Travers, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Alaric slowly groaned as the world continued spinning, but he was coherent enough to recognize the voice. It was Cygnus, the elusive Head Boy who had talked to him multiple times before despite the lack of a clear motive.
"Defending myself," snapped back Travers, apparently the blond boy who had just accosted him. But his voice lacked any real heat, he clearly knew all too well that he could not just challenge the Head Boy for he was outclassed both in terms of magic and influence. Moreover, all of them were aware that clashes inside the House of Snakes rarely ended well for anyone when the leaders of their houses got involved- they were not given the privilege of standing on top of the House for nothing, all of them were exceptional in their own unique ways.
"I have not been made the Head Boy because of my obliviousness." Cygnus' voice had an edge to it now, and Alaric could almost feel Travers take a step back in the face of his fury, "You and your group of thugs are attacking a defenceless first year. I think this is the exact sort of thing that concerns me and perhaps Snape."
"Defenceless!" snarled the other boy, one that had been tending to Macnair previously, "He made one of the torches explode and spray us with fire and he didn't even use his wand! Macnair is almost unconscious,"
"Don't be ridiculous. These are just surface burns, nothing a quick episkey cannot heal," Cygnus clearly did not buy any of the excuses, and pushed Macnair to his feet with a wave of his wand despite the protests, "Besides, wandless magic of that sort is not something mere first years can do on a whim. I don't know what happened, but move along and drop this matter. Permanently, or my word about this would certainly reach Snape."
Grumbling and cursing all the way, Macnair who looked so dazed that he had not even spoken a single word through the entire commotion was carefully led away by his group as they made their reluctant retreat.
"Are you all right, Alaric?" the head boy turned towards him when the group were out of eyesight and asked even as the door to dormitories had closed behind them, offering his hand and helping the rather startled first year to his feet without much trouble.
"Fine, but I don't know what took over me," Alaric coughed, casting a contemptuous glare in the direction the three older boys had made off in. "I wasn't paying attention and then got blasted in the chest by something that knocked the breath out of me, literally. What the hell was that spell?"
"Probably either a Banishing Hex or a Knockback Jinx," Cygnus explained, turning towards him and waving his wand wordlessly over his chest, "The former is a fourth-year spell, perhaps that is why you haven't heard of it yet whereas the latter can be found in second-year supplementary materials in the Library."
Alaric ignored the feeling of steely magic clearing out his airways and just sighed in response, fists clenching and relaxing in quick succession as he remembered the powerlessness he had just experienced.
Almost as if reading his thoughts, the head boy's lips twitched in amusement and he shook his head. "You should thank Daphne, they would have done much worse than a Banishing Hex if I had not rushed here quickly. She was quick to find me and consider it your luck that I ended this before it could turn into a permanent feud. If they have their heads in the right place then they should leave your alone after this, you've already proven that you would not hesitate to bite when pushed far enough."
"Wait, Daphne is your sister?" Despite all that had just happened, the anger and worry over the night's events temporarily were wiped away as Alaric's eyes widened in surprise and he ignored most of the sentence to focus on what he deemed really important. Cygnus just chuckled in response and thumped his back with eyes full of mirth.
Thanks for reading.