We are getting to it and nobody likes Anderson
The Ravenclaw common room was all the way up the astrology tower. Henry had never counted the stairs, but he hated the cardio they promised. Abraham had once filed a complaint, they should enable apparating for the Ravenclaws because the stairs were a violation to human rights and the Geneva conventions because they classified as collective punishment, but somehow his complaints were ignored.
After several breaks and some contemplating if he might have Asthma, Henry arrived in his common room. The riddle that was thrown at him was “What the hell is a Hufflepuff?” and Henry was pretty sure the sphinx had gone completely insane now.
That would make two of you.
Henry chose to ignore that insult against his person, answered the riddle “Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders” and continued his way to the boy´s dormitories.
“Jekyll” was the first thing he heard when he entered. It was Sherlock who once again would only use his last name to refer to him, like he did with everyone. Everyone except that Gryffindor boy John Watson. He didn´t actually know the lad, but he must be pleasant company, otherwise Sherlock would be annoyed by him in a matter of minutes and not hang out with him whenever possible.
Henry turned his attention back to the dark-haired boy, who pointed at the four-poster bed next to him.
“You´re the last one. That’s the only bed left.”
“Amazing!” he heard Abraham from across the room. “two insomniac idiots next to each other! What could go wrong?” And then he had the audacity to laugh about his own joke.
Just kidding, Hyde was laughing too. But Abraham couldn’t hear that. What Abraham could hear was Phillip Anderson (I actually had to google his first name. And no, I don’t care that I use the BBC Sherlock versions for the classic lit. representation. That’s a you-problem) laughing in his corner.
“Oi!” he yelled “laugh about your own jokes, Pannenkoek!”
No one except him actually spoke Dutch and knew what the insult meant, but they were all sure it was an insult so a quiet “oooooooooh” went through the room.
I´ll have you know, no one likes Anderson. The guy was best friends with Sally Donovan who was the equivalent of a human trashcan and probably JK Rowling in disguise. She was transphobic, had a general hate towards anyone who wasn’t cishet and had the clear opinion that Slytherins were the epitome of evil, Ravenclaws were better support characters and Hufflepuffs didn´t exist.
There was a time where she had decided that Elizabeth Lavenza was not worthy of something no one except her knew and started picking on her, to what Anderson happily tagged along. This lasted exactly a few days until Mina Harker caught wind of it and almost ripped her apart. The only thing that stopped her was Creature picking her up and trying to deescalate the situation.
But as Sally failed to see reason (as well as Anderson) after Creature, who saw Elizabeth as a little sister, got involved, and started insulting them as well, Sally Donovan and Phillip Anderson where declared the school-equivalent of outlawed.
Because everyone who knew Elizabeth Lavenza (and possessed a brain) knew that she was probably the closest a human could get to an actual cinnamon roll, although she could get really mad when Victor exploded stuff for the seventh time a week. On a Wednesday.
And if you did not know Elizabeth or did not like her for whatever reason, you should -for your own sake- be smart enough not to attempt to bully her because
- Bullying is mean and you are human trash if you do it and
- Mina Harker will come for your kneecaps for hurting her girlfriend.
So not only received Anderson a Dutch roast, but he also got a pillow to the head thrown by Abraham.
Bullying the bully by excluding him might be hypocrisy but I´m not willing to take any kind of criticism for that. I as the author am not responsible for the moral correctness of my character´s behaviour, given the fact that I am not romanticising toxic relationships, mental diseases or any kind of racism or sexism, including but not limited to transphobia and homophobia (etc. the list goes on)
So much to terms and conditions of this book, back to the plot.
Eventually everyone turned in for the night and maybe even Henry and Sherlock got some sleep. Said sleep didn´t last long though because this is school, and sleep is optional.
At the breakfast table Henry sat once again across from Mina and Abraham, only on this fine morning Creature had seated themselves next to Henry and while Henry wasn´t particularly short, he was still a dwarf compared to them.
“Morning.” Henry sat down and looked at the display of English breakfast. He wasn’t particularly hungry, but he wouldn’t skip some scrambled eggs.
Mina had her plate filled with pancakes with peanut butter and was now putting a concerning amount of cream on top. She nodded to Henry before starting to stuff her face with the pancake.
“A good morning to you Henry.” Abraham greeted and continued to eat his cornflakes.
Creature only nodded and drank some tea quietly.
“Oh boy.” Mina said between two bites.
“What?” Henry looked up to meet her eyes.
“I can see Victor drowning his third cup of coffee. Better not let Lizzy get to him today.”
Henry sighted. “That means he will have a heavy down phase by lunchtime.” He stared at his plate for a second. “And he´ll probably raid my stash of cough syrup.”
“Do you mean the -quote on quote- cough syrup where you two just threw everything inside of a cauldron -what was it, morphine, chloroform, some weed and some booze for good measure?” Mina sounded a bit accusing and Henry was not under the impression that she was the person to talk since she was Abrahams number one client in the weed business, but he was not the kind of person that argues with people over nothing for no reason, so he just nodded and gave a passive aggressive smile, which she returned.
Then a teacher started handing out the timetables and Henry faced a light panic because he had forgotten to ask Remus Lupin to take one for Edward, since he was kind of their shared friend.
How long until he gets behind your little secret, HeNrY?
But once again Edward Hyde was ignored for the sake of Henry not getting sent into an insane asylum. This was going to be a long year.