A new club
Tom and Augusta were accompanied by cheering students, as they made their way to the hospital wing. Alphard cheered, waving his bedsheet and Constance screamed victoriously at Popina Nott and Bertha Goyle. Alice Axman and Michael Löhr jumped around arm in arm, chanting: “Muggle-Power!” A tanned Hufflepuff girl with black hair and a slim face slapped Fran Lestrange on the back. Red splotches appeared on his pale skin and he smiled awkwardly. Two tall, muscular boys jelled at Malfoy, that they would never fight Tom, no matter how much he paid them. Students that Tom had never met, came to pet him on the back and congratulate him. Apparently Augusta had never been beaten before.
The matron, madame Soranus was not at all like grandma Mary, despite the fact that they shared a profession. She was quite angry about the circumstance that Tom and Macmillan had beaten each other bloody. Grandma was always proud when Tom won boxing matches. According to Soranus’s angry diagnosis charms, two of Tom’s ribs were broken, his shin had a crack and a blood vessel in his arm was badly squished and had raptured in one point. Augusta did not look much better. She had lost three teeth, her right arm was dislocated and her nose was broken (Claudius Lestrange jumped up and down and cheered, as soon as he heard that) added to that her ribs were badly bruised. Augusta and Tom laughed and high-fifed as the matron led them to their beds. At least Macmillan had good sportsmanship after a fight, even if she did not care to obey the rules.
While they drank disgusting potions, madame Soranus chased the crowd of cheering students away, screaming about how much of a disgrace it was, that the children applauded violence. Tom and Augusta looked at each other and chuckled. “You mean it, right Tom? I’ll get my rematch next week.”, the Gryffindor girl asked showing her still bloody teeth in a wide grin. “Naturally! I am glad I found a sparing partner. How else will I keep up with the boys in my club?”, Tom replied, grinning as well. His family would be so happy, when he would tell them that he had not only made friends, but also found a sparing partner.
His joy was short-lived. As soon as all the students had left, the hospital wing’s door opened again and Professor Burke and Professor Dumbledore entered. Tom’s head of house wore a black silken robe and a velvet cloak in green draped over his left shoulder. It was held in place by a silver chain. Despite the expensive clothing he paled next to Dumbledore's extravagance. The head of Gryffindor wore a flowing, lime green robe, full of blooming flowers and a pink cloak that looked like it was made entirely of sequins. On his head, there was... something that looked like a gigantic, upside down orchid blossom. It looked horrifying.
Professor Burke cleared his throat. “I heard the two of you got into a fight? I have to inform you that behavior like that will not be tolerated on Hogwarts grounds. Professor Dumbledore and I have decided to remove ten points from each of you and give you two two week s of detention.”, the strict teacher explained coldly. Dumbledore nodded and his long red beard bounced. “But Professor, we did not fight. We were sparing! It is boxing training! We agreed to it. We are not hostile!”, Tom called out, even though Augusta had violated the rules and the fight had gotten quite sirious. “No hostility? You punched several of the poor girls teeth out and broke her nose!”, Dumbledore scolded.
Augusta sat up, the rabid animal expression back on her face. “And I broke his ribs and his leg. But we fought as friends! You see; boxing is a muggle sport. Father let’s me do it, well a variation of it called cage fight, to have an outlet for my aggression. It was a friendly match, like a duel between friends. We agreed to stop if one yields. We did. We don’t deserve to be punished. If the Quidditch teams don’t get punished for training for their matches, we should not be punished for our training either! The Quidditch players get injured all the time!”, she snapped at the teachers.
Burke and Dumbledore looked at each other, obviously not very pleased. “Well, children, if you want to... “train” on the quidditch pitch, you have to book it, like everybody else. The punishment still stands.”, Professor Burke explained slowly. Dumbledore nodded. “And I’m afraid you will need a ... boxing club, to be able to do that.”, the sparkly Professor added. Burke nodded, obviously excited for the chance to stop them from fighting again. “And a club needs at least five members.”, he gloated and swiped one of his graying strands out of his eyes. Augusta presented the two teachers with her most evil smile. “Oh, that won’t be a problem.”
It turned out that it was indeed not a problem. Not only were Tom’s friends all easily convinced to join, even though Constance only agreed to be a referee there were also tons of other students excited to try the new sport. The application sheet on the black bored, outside the great hall, began to fill with names. The black haired Hufflepuff girl, who Tom had seen with Lestrange after the match wrote the name “Wanda Messina” on the paper. Lestrange added his name only seconds later. Augusta blackmailed lots of her Gryffindor peers into signing up too. The list was full by Monday and Augusta booked the quidditch pitch for every single Saturday for the rest of the school year. Rumors got out that she threatened someones kneecaps, if she would not get it.
On Wednesday they finally had potions with professor Slughorn, the teacher Tom had been most excited to meet again. Minerva and Tom sat together right in the front of the classroom. Both of them listened closely to what Slughorn had to say and started to brew their pimple cure. With Slughorn's instructions it was quite easy. The Professor was quite proud of their accomplishment and showed the entire class their potion. Slughorn explained proudly, that only a girl in Ravenclaw called Poppy Pomfrey had outdone them, a statement that made the two friends very proud. Both Tom and Minerva received five points for their houses and Slughorn congratulated Tom and Augusta on their new club. Then the teacher invited Tom and Miss Noodles, as well as Minerva and a few other students to one of his parties.
By the time the next Saturday came around, Tom had gotten used to the life in Hogwarts. His lessons were very exciting and he had a lot of fun, even if they were not allowed to actually try the Agumenti charm yet and learned to shoot different colours of sparks from their wands instead. Tom was quite proud of his green, red, and purple sparks, despite the fact, that Alice, who was average in all other subjects but excelled at charms, managed to produce and entire Rainbow at once by the end of the lesson, earing twenty points and lots of cheers. Hogwarts really began to feel like home, especially as soon as the Riddles letters started to arrive. Tom was much more happy then he had ever been at his old school.