Classes & Cliques
“Whoops.”
Tyler grit his teeth so hard it felt like maybe he broke one when some asshole tripped him in the doorway of his history class and caused him to land face first in the classroom.
“Mister Galpin, you do need to be careful,” the vampire teacher, Ms Sangre or something, said coolly while the other students laughed.
“Yeah, my bad,” Tyler snarled as he got to his feet. “My ankle must have accidentally found Cody’s foot.”
Ms Sangre tsk’d at Tyler, then just turned her head away when Cody shoved past Tyler to get in the classroom.
It was pathetic, getting shoved around by some rich kids who thought they were better than everyone else because of their powers. They were lucky they had wolf genes or siren blood or whatever, Tyler would like to see them deal with being a Hyde.
Seventeen more months… seventeen more months… Tyler reminded himself while he took a seat in the back row of class in the only desk available beside Harry’s new roommate.
In seventeen months Tyler would be done with school and he could pack it all up and leave. In seventeen months Tyler could leave town - leave the whole damn state - and start fresh with just Harry and Xavier.
Tyler could be somewhere warm and sunny where nobody knew he was a Hyde. Tyler could be in a place where he’d never accidentally run into his dad again.
Tyler’s dad had been pissed by the time they both made it home the day after the fight at Nevermore. He stormed in the house with his uniform still on and immediately grabbed Tyler by his shirt collar and lifted him off the couch.
“Tyler, what the hell have you done?!” he demanded. He shook Tyler harshly, causing Tyler’s teeth to chatter. “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!”
“NOTHING!” Tyler yelled, denying his involvement immediately. “Dad, it wasn’t me! It was the- the freaking- the—”
“QUIT YOUR DAMN STUTTERING AND SPEAK, TYLER!”
“I’M A HYDE!” Tyler yelled after his dad shook him again. “I’M A FREAKING HYDE!”
Tyler’s dad dropped him then and stared hard at Tyler like he’d never really looked at him before.
“You… you’re a Hyde?” he asked. Tyler had never seen his dad look so scared - so disgusted - before. The disgust eventually won out and his face twisted hard. “YOU KILLED ALL THOSE PEOPLE?” he screamed in Tyler’s face. “HOW COULD YOU?!”
“ITS NOT LIKE I CHOSE THIS!” Tyler yelled. “MOM WAS ONE TOO! DID YOU KNOW? HUH?” Tyler pushed his dad in the chest. “ANSWER ME!”
Tyler hadn’t expected it when his dad grabbed him again and swung a heavy hand out, cuffing him in the side of the head hard enough to make his eyes water and his ear ring.
“Don’t you bring up your mom to me,” Dad said furiously, his blue eyes hard when they were narrowed in Tyler’s face. “Your mom never killed anyone.”
“Unlike me, huh?” Tyler said, holding back a sob born of exhaustion and anger. “Sorry to be such a fucking disappointment, Dad.”
“YOU KILLED FIVE PEOPLE, TYLER!” Dad screamed, a bit of spit landing on Tyler’s face. “YOU DON’T GET TO BE THE VICTIM HERE!”
“I. CANNOT. CONTROL. IT!” Tyler yelled. How did nobody aside from Harry understand that? It wasn’t like Tyler would go kill Lucas for fun. Just because Hyde liked the chance to rip and torture and kill didn’t mean Tyler did.
They were two separate people stuck sharing one body.
Tyler’s dad stepped back then, leaving enough space between them that Tyler felt cold clear to his bones.
“Get out,” he said. “Go.”
“What?” Tyler stared at his dad. “Where am I supposed to go?”
“I don’t care!” Dad snapped. He grabbed Tyler’s keys off the coffee table and threw them at Tyler, smacking his chest and bouncing to the floor. “JUST GET OUT!”
“Dad—”
“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!”
So Tyler did. He drove down the highway with the radio full blast and the windows rolled down, letting all the noise wash his thoughts away.
Tyler drove until his car ran out of gas; he’d pulled in a fuel station and passed out in his seat before he even got gas.
When he woke up, he had a text from Xavier.
Harry’s looking for you.
Tyler fueled his car back up and drove straight to Nevermore.
Trading one shit hole for another. Though, at least Nevermore came with Harry and Xavier.
As soon as history ended, Tyler had classes with either Xavier or Harry the rest of the day.
Tyler caught Harry in the hall outside their English class and was surprised when Harry jogged up to him and hugged him quickly before leading him in the classroom, talking a mile a minute.
“I have tried so hard to be nice to Draco, but I swear, Ty, he hates me! And I didn’t say anything weird or freaky, it’s not like he has talking hair, but this morning he was taking ages in the bathroom and all I said was ‘I need to brush my teeth’ and he yelled at me! For what? For brushing my teeth?”
Tyler sat beside Harry and grinned while he listened to Harry go on about what a dick his new roommate was. It wasn’t funny at all that Harry’s roommate sucked, it was just nice listening to Harry ramble on about it.
Finally, Harry huffed and smoothed his hair down while the rest of the students filtered in.
“Anyway, how was history?” he asked with a smile.
That was the good thing about Harry, Harry could fill all the silences with words and had a knack for drawing Tyler out of whatever shit mood he was in. When Tyler wanted to just wallow in self-loathing and misery, he went to Xavier.
It was always funny to Tyler that the convicted murderer in their relationship was the one that could make him smile the most. Of course, maybe that shouldn’t really be all that surprising.
Tyler knew from the first time they met that he and Harry understood each other in a way that nobody else could. Tyler was more physical with Xavier and more emotional with Harry.
Every person needed two parters, and if they didn’t- then why did so many people cheat?
“Fine,” Tyler answered Harry. “Boring and your roommate sat beside me, but it was fine.”
“Ugh.” Harry crinkled his nose and then looked to his right when Wednesday took her seat. “Hi.”
“I’m reading,” Wednesday said from behind a thick black book that didn’t have a title on the outside.
“I thought other authors were boring?” Harry asked.
“Only mildly less so than this unit on formatting that I mastered years ago,” Wednesday muttered with a quick glare to their teacher, Ms Rosen.
Tyler didn’t roll his eyes, but he wanted to. Wednesday might be a little more nice to Harry than she was almost anyone else, but that didn’t make her actually nice.
And Tyler might sit with her in classes they both shared with Harry, but that didn’t mean he liked her.
*****
“Alright, class, as you can see we have some new faces here!” Mrs Cayce, their like super unfairly gorgeous art teacher, smiled around the classroom at the three new students. “Would you all like to introduce yourselves?”
Enid watched from beside her canvas set up next to Xavier’s as Ashley, one of the new magic students, stepped forward with a wide smile and an energetic wave of her hand.
“Hi! I’m Ashley Sanders and I’m from Ohio! I used to go to Illvermony, but, like… I think this school is waaay nicer!”
Enid was beaming in approval and welcomed Ashley along with the rest of the students. Mrs Cayce assigned her a canvas over by Billie then turned an expectant smile on the other new student.
“I’m Nicholas, you can call me Nic,” the dark skinned boy with the curls and lazy drawl grinned at them all. “I’m from Texas and I’m already cold.”
Enid, who knew how cold Vermont had to be compared to Texas, smiled sympathetically and welcomed Nic while he went to set up with Ashley.
“And you?” Ms Cayce asked the third new student.
“I’m Draco Malfoy,” Harry’s new blonde and foreign roomie said curtly.
“Where did you go to school at before, Draco?” Ms Cayce prompted him when it seemed like that was all Draco was going to share.
“Hogwarts School of Magic,” Draco said, just as shortly.
“That’s where Sirius used to go,” Enid whispered to Xavier eagerly. “I wonder if they know each other!”
“Ares,” Xavier stressed Sirius’ cover name, “is like twenty years older than him, I doubt they know each other.”
Enid shrugged, crazier things had happened.
Draco wound up being assigned a spot on Xavier’s other side and Enid waved brightly when he set up his canvas.
“Hi,” she called over to him, unbothered by the way he didn’t respond. Wednesday didn’t respond to her all the time, it didn’t mean she wasn’t listening.
“How’s your first day of classes?” Enid asked Draco.
Nothing.
“Did you get unpacked?”
Silence.
“Well if you need anything, you can always tell one of us and we’ll be happy to help,” Enid said. She shrugged her shoulders helplessly when Xavier gave her a curious look. The other new students seemed excited to be there, Draco seemed like he’d rather be anywhere else.
Enid figured he would warm up eventually. Nevermore was like the greatest school ever and the new kids were so lucky that Harry was already there. Harry didn’t have any other magical students when he arrived.
And Enid of all people knew how lonely life could be without a pack.
*****
Harry was unreasonably nervous when his second to last class of the day rolled around. Botany used to be one of his favorite classes; it was peaceful and calm in the class and Harry had liked Miss Thornhill.
That was before she wound up being a crazy person who killed Wednesday, stuck some spirit in Harry’s body, and commanded Tyler around though.
Sirius told Harry that Principal Weems hired a famous psychic, Mister John Sarantakos, to teach the class. Sirius swore he was a ‘nice enough bloke’, but Harry was more wary.
“You’re sweating,” Xavier murmured when Harry’s group of friends - Harry loved that phrase ‘group of friends’ - made their way in the classroom. The tables were set up for sets of three, so Harry, Xavier, and Tyler took a table in the back corner and Enid and Wednesday took the table in front of them.
“I’m not sweating,” Harry denied even as he anxiously looked around the familiar classroom for the new teacher. “I’m- I’m—”
“Worried the new teacher is a psychopath?” Tyler offered. He gave Harry a smile that looked too tired to even show his dimples. “Yeah, me too.”
“Psychopath I am not.”
Harry jolted in his seat and spun around to see the new teacher entering from the back of the class with a smirk. He was older, with grey hair and a neatly trimmed grey beard. His eyes were a warm brown behind his wire-rimmed glasses though and Harry blushed hotly when those eyes landed on him.
“I’m- I’m sorry, sir,” Harry stammered, embarrassed. “We didn’t—,”
“Think nothing of it,” the man said. He waved his hand while he easily maneuvered between the tables to get upfront. He paused beside his desk and swept a sharp gaze across all of them.
“My name is John Sarantakos, you all may call me Mister John as I would prefer to not hear the butchering of my family name repeatedly.”
There were a few laughs, but none from Harry.
Mister John reclined against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “I understand that your prior professor in this class was less than satisfactory.”
“You can say that again,” Tyler muttered quietly. Harry moved his hand under the table and found Tyler’s knee. Harry silently squeezed it, just letting him know he was there.
“My son would refer to your ‘Miss Thornhill’ as a person suffering from normie madness,” Mister John said, his eyes lingering on Tyler for a moment. “I would simply call her a disgrace of a teacher and encourage us all to move on in the sake of education.”
Xavier joined a few others who clapped politely and then they all relaxed some when Mister John began his lesson on medicinal plants.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Xavier said after their class ended. “John Sarantakos is a big name on the psychic circuit though, I’m surprised they got him to come teach here.”
“Maybe he wanted— Harry, where are you going?”
Harry had all but ran from the room, excitement for his last class of the day overtaking him.
“I’ve got Magic next,” Harry called over his shoulder to his bemused looking boyfriends. He gave them a wide smile and a wave. “I’ll see you guys later!”
Whatever the two of them laughed, Harry didn’t hear them. He’d been looking forward to Magic for weeks. A chance to learn from Sirius with other wizards and witches? Harry was ecstatic.
Even Draco’s sour face in the classroom didn’t bother Harry. There were only six desks in the room, two rows of three, and Harry sat in the front middle, right in front of Sirius’ desk. Draco sat to Harry’s right, but one of the new girls took Harry’s left.
“Hello,” the girl smiled at Harry and offered her hand. “I’m Hannah.”
Harry grinned at her, already liking her friendly smile and pretty dark curls.
“Harry,” he said as he shook her hand with a bit too much enthusiasm. “Harry Potter.”
“I know,” the girl said, her brown eyes rolling even while her smile stayed in place. “Just because I’m from California doesn’t mean I don’t know who Harry Potter is.”
“Oh.” Harry dropped his gaze to his desk while his stomach squirmed uncomfortably. “Right.”
The new kids probably heard all the gossip about Harry.
‘Harry used to be in jail.’
‘Harry killed a man.’
‘Harry tried to kill all of us.’
Harry turned around when one of the new boys, this one with straight black hair, piercings in both ears, and a little hoop on his bottom lip tapped him on the shoulder.
“Did you know that you’re like a total episode on Unsolved Crimes of Magic?”
Harry blinked at him. “What?”
“Oh, yeah,” the redhead girl beside him said with a quick bob of her head. “We saw that in like my first year at Illvermony. The disappearance of Harry Potter? I can’t believe you’re not dead!”
Harry glanced from the redhead girl to the boy with the piercings and he furrowed his brows down in confusion.
“I don’t understand…?”
“Good afternoon!”
Harry had never been so relieved to see his godfather as he was then.
The new magic students were odd and had Harry feeling rather confused.
Sirius bounded in the room, dressed nicely in a dress shirt and black trousers with his long black hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. When Sirius turned around after closing the door, the wide smile on his face dropped almost instantly.
Harry glanced over and saw that Draco had stiffened in his seat, his eyes as wide as Sirius’ were, and Harry got a horrible feeling in his stomach.
“Uh… right…” Sirius looked around quickly at the other students, not remarking on his peculiar reaction to seeing Draco, and smiled a little less joyfully than before.
“I’m Professor Frump,” Sirius said, sticking to the fake name Wednesday’s mum gave him after he’d been attacked last year and had to be admitted to the hospital.
Draco made a quiet sound in the back of his throat and Harry sent him a curious look, but Draco was staring fixedly at the marker board that was hung up behind Sirius’ desk.
“You lot are my favorite students here,” Sirius said, grinning at everyone except Draco. “And I’m a shit professor, but I had a lot of good ones, so I’m going to pretend to be them for the next hour, alright?”
“Yes, sir,” Ashley said from behind Draco. She was sitting up straight at her seat and had a notebook and pencil ready. “Sir, will we be taking OWLS?”
“Of a sort,” Sirius said. He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth, grinning happily. “You’ll be taking your practical exams here in May, but you’ll have to set up a time with MACUSA to take the written at the beginning of summer.”
Harry bit his lip and fidgeted slightly, completely lost in the conversation. He didn’t expect to be so far behind the other students…
“Sound good?” Sirius looked around at them all again. “Brilliant! With that being said…” Sirius swished his wand and suddenly nearly fifty different spells appeared on the board behind him. “Let’s see where everyone is in terms of magic. Who wants to go first?”
“Oh, me!!” Ashley said, holding her hand high.
Sirius chuckled and waved for her to come up. Ashley bounced to the front and Harry saw that she had a light colored wand clutched in her hand.
Harry looked around subtly and saw that they all had wands…
“Go through this list and when you can’t do one, it’s someone else’s turn,” Sirius told her. “Start any time.”
Harry watched, enraptured really, as Hannah began going through the spells and making bubbles appear, fireworks to shoot out, even changing water into ice with just a word. After she did about eight spells though, she hesitated and Sirius called for someone else.
“Brantley Rogers,” the boy with black hair and piercings said. His wand was dark with a handle on it that shimmered.
“Whenever you’re ready, Brantley,” Sirius said. He’d moved to his chair, his fingers laced behind his head, and watched everyone with an easy smile.
Brantley was more showy than Ashley and made it through the first fifteen before shrugging at the sixteenth and turning it over to Hannah.
Hannah, despite what seemed to be an arrogant exterior, didn’t make it much further than Ashley. After her came the other boy, Nic Castillo, who Harry rather liked as he laughed at every spell he cast. Nic had green eyes that lit up with happiness every time he cast something.
Harry, unconsciously, clapped loudly when Nic made it to the twenty-second spell. Nic winked at Harry and did a twirling bow before strutting back to his seat.
“Draco?” Sirius said lightly, not quite looking at Draco when he said it.
“Potter can go next,” Draco said stiffly, also not looking at Sirius.
Harry dropped his head down and felt like an idiot when he quietly reminded Sirius that he didn’t have a wand.
“You don’t have a wand?” Brantley asked, sounding shocked. “How- how do you even know you’re a wizard?”
“Because he’s Harry freaking Potter,” Hannah snorted with a toss of her dark curls. “What? You think he’s a squib?”
Harry’s excitement to be in the class with other students like him - his own group of students just like the vampires and wolves and sirens had - diminished to nothing while the others began arguing.
“Shut uppppp,” Sirius sang out loudly from his desk, his smile still in place. “Harry, come up.”
Harry felt horribly embarrassed when he got up, the others all watching him. A quick glance at the clock assured him that at least he’d only be subjected to fifteen more minutes of the class at least.
Then he could sneak off to dinner with his friends, who also didn’t have wands, and everything would be fine.
“Hands up, Harry,” Sirius said, winking at Harry sneakily. Harry nervously raised his hands, rather feeling as if he were going to be arrested again.
“Anyone see a wand?” Sirius asked, raising his brows when everyone echoed a no. “Brilliant. Go ahead, Harry. Start at the top.”
Harry checked the board and knew that the first one was easy, one he’d done it loads of time.
“Do you want me to say it out loud, sir?” Harry asked Sirius respectfully.
Sirius’ smile grew until it took up his entire face. “Absolutely not.”
Harry flicked his fingers, creating half a dozen little lumos lights. He grinned sheepishly when there were a couple of surprised gasps and Harry turned one purple and moved it to float just above Hannah’s head.
“Is that… is that a wandless lumos?” Brantley asked.
“Bruh, it was silent too,” Nic said.
Harry glanced at Draco and saw that he looked surprised for half a second before he caught Harry looking and he clamped his jaw shut and glared down at his desk.
“Go on, Harry,” Sirius encouraged Harry. “Let’s see where you stop.”
Harry wound up having fun as he spent the last fifteen minutes of class going through the list. It wasn’t until he got to number thirty-six, ‘Expecto Patronum’, that he had to concede defeat.
When the bell rang, Harry was immediately swarmed by his classmates.
“That was so freaking cool!” Brantley said, clapping Harry on the shoulder and smiling widely. “You made us look like punks.”
“Where did you train?” Ashley asked Harry with a sweet smile.
“Er…”
“Who needs a wand when you don’t even need to talk, dude?” Nic laughed, throwing his arm around Harry’s shoulders.
“It was like annoying cool,” Hannah said, giving Harry a small smile. “Hey, why don’t we all sit together at dinner? Everyone else has their little cliques, why not us?”
Harry looked around at his fellow wizards and witches. The four of them were smiling and looking at Harry like he was one of them.
“Yeah,” Harry said happily, grinning at his friends. “Sure, let’s all sit together.”
Harry saw Draco sneak off alone, his nose in the air, but Harry couldn’t be bothered really. All he’d ever wanted was a group of friends to spend time with. And, sure, he had his cousin and Enid, Tyler and Xavier, but… but there was something magical about having a group of students all just like him.