The Giant
Oliver managed to somewhat walk the fall off, naturally, he assumed something must’ve broken from the impact. But he didn’t have time for that, so he went back to his makeshift hut in the woods and got as comfy as he could. He bundled up his robe to use as a pillow, its lingering smell of warm bread filled his dreams.
Waking up the next day wasn’t too bad, he felt brand new— sort of. He didn’t go to the muggle town yet, even though he planned to finally leave after last time, but procrastination was became a fun pastime. He still needed his bag from the school, and sure, with some spells and a quick walk by, he could snatch it and be off in no time.
But alas, the pain from his fall left him staying longer than usual and forced him to simply lay and rest. Which became a great excuse because, frankly, he didn’t want to leave yet. Perhaps it was stupidity or the castle itself calling out to him, or a way to learn more magic— definitely not the aching pain from his ribs—but he couldn’t bring himself to leave yet.
Nights later, when food became scarce again— the alluring thought of raiding the castle again filled his mind.
At first, he thought against it. Although, his bag was something he needed to grab before heading back. Because if he tried to travel back to the muggle town without it, he wouldn’t make it far. He decided to sleep on it, at least for one more night. And sure enough, the moment the sun broke through the sky, he was up and moving, determined to grab his bag and a true last meal.
Each step felt like dumbbells against glass, but he persevered until he made his way towards the stairwell that held his backpack, thankfully untouched. It was in the exact same position and he thanked the protection of the castle walls. His next objective was to find the dining hall, but then he saw it.
An abnormally large crater on the wall. Debris tumbled out of the impact point, each tiny rock pitifully falling on the ground. Who did this? Dark blue eyes zoned onto the scratch marks that rippled on the outside. A sweat stain flew down the side of his face as a distressed look appeared on his face. What did this?
Someone, or something was attacking the castle. And the magic within his nerves ignited and the feeling of pure rage overtook any hunger he might’ve felt, because he quite liked the castle, and no monster or magical being was going to harm anything that made him feel safe.
A sudden loud bang echoed from upstairs, so without hesitation he followed the noise, finding some students hiding and leaning against the inside pillar of the stairs. As he reached the top he witnessed a plethora of wands scattered all across the floor, no student moving forward to retrieve them. They all seemed terrified. But of what?
He looked over, finding a man and a— he froze in his steps. He’d only heard of them in stories, mostly from Jackson, from his rapid rambles he’d get after reading one of his father’s books. From their aggressive behavior and quoted from Jackson himself, “incredible dumbness” they can be easily overpowered. But he forgot to mention the size, how it seemed to tower over everyone— even from a distance. Oliver stared at the backside of the Giant, who’s intentions only led to precipitous damage to the castle, as it continually punched into the walls. Each collision with the wall sounded like an explosion as the students around him flinched with each thump.
He urged his legs to move forward, despite the shakiness his legs held from fear, as he held in his right hand a fake makeshift wand. He made one step forward and a young girl snapped her gaze over to him, looking him up and down. He continued his steps, and she shook her head desperately and even tried grabbing his arm to halt his movements.
The giant was distracted with a light on the wall, as it attempted to rip the light out of the side of the wall. It was distracted, and Oliver let his pace pick up as he grew closer to the unaware giant. Other students' glares burned the back of his head, but he couldn’t hear the soft whisper yells towards him. His attention was directed only on the Giant unmercifully pulling at the light fixture out of the wall with no remorse. The slashes and marks on the wall only confirmed it. The castle was too beautiful and wonderful to be so plainly disrespected like this. Oliver would not stand for this.
He grabbed a pebble from his pocket, a new trick he’d been practicing, and he threw the rock up, holding back his stick like a baseball player. With a controlled breath, he let the magic pour through him. He whispered the spell out of his mouth as his stick made contact with the pebble, “Furnunculus.”
The pebble shot forward, gaining speed and a hard flame. And hit the Giant on the side of his head, knocking him over. Immediately after it fell on its ass did it start screaming. Slowly and surely, boils bubbled and covered his skin from where the pebble hit him. Even with painful cries, it shot its horrible glare towards him, and fear shivered down his spine.
Oliver already grabbed another pebble, shooting it up and whispering another spell as it stood up, “Slugulus Eructo,” he wished he knew more spells that would cause harm towards an enemy, but his mind was trying to think of anything he had read from his stolen textbooks. The pebble shot towards it, but it was anticipating this and reached to grab it. The moment it closed its fist around the pebble, it made a small gagging noise. Sure enough, slugs began to pour out of its mouth. Unfortunately, that only seemed to make it angrier, and it stomped towards Oliver.
There were frightened students behind him, so he needed to get this Giant to stop, so he pointed his fake stick and yelled, “Immobilize!”
The giant froze in its steps, but it only took a couple seconds until it managed to shake off the spell and continue its pursuit, more provoked than before. Frankly, Oliver was starting to run out of ideas, meanwhile the fatigue of casting so many spells was starting to catch up to him. His bones ached deeply as he heaved for air, watching in horror as the giant finally stood above him, and it swung its arm towards Oliver. He had no way to protect himself, so as the giant's arm made contact with his side he sporadically shouted, “Protego!” Hoping to shield himself from the hard impact.
Regretfully, the spell could only protect him so much. As the wind was completely knocked out of him and he was launched towards a wall. The pain of the impact barely registered, and he skimmed down the wall to roughly land on the ground. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or just pure stupidity, but he coerced his eyes to focus on the giant and lifted his hand to point. The giant was stomping its way over. With the last bit of his breath, he spat out any and every spell he could remember. He shook as every spell racked him and added a new layer of pain or numbness in his state.
Eventually he ran out of breath and his vision blurred, his chest ached and the taste of cooper flooded his mouth. His body fell forward but before the hard grunt could break his fall, hands wrapped around his chest.
Every part of his body wanted to thrash, because there was still a giant that needed to be taken care of. His body wouldn’t cooperate, so he was left at the mercy of this stranger who laid him on them. Oliver’s eyes were shut, even though he never remembered closing them in the first place. Meanwhile, breathing remained difficult and he wheezed as pain continued throughout his body.
The arms around his chest maneuvered him into a seated position, he was completely vulnerable. Fear made his nerves spike when a pointy object pressed against the middle of his chest. That’s when he felt it, the trickle of warm magic wrapping around the source of pain that was blocking his airway. All at once, the pain subdued and allowed him to finally get air through his throat. His eyes shot open and he glanced at the number of students surrounding him– watching him. The primary objective of catching his breath didn’t seem to entertain them that much, since the moment he passed a glance around they started with questions.
“What’s your name?” A girl with ginger locks and bright eyes asked.
“How did you cast the spells without your wand?” Another guy spoke, his smile as blinding as his golden locks, before he was interrupted by a timid voice next to him, her hair jet black and mostly covering her face, “I grabbed it after you dropped it.”
They continued to bombard him with questions and Oliver’s heart rate was starting to pick up again as he glanced at all the prying eyes.
The girl in front of him, who previously had her wand to his chest, moved it up to his face and whispered her spell once more, “episkey.” As the cuts on his face seemed to heal up she spoke to the voices behind, “Will you quit it? He’s just taken a nasty hit and he hasn’t caught his breath yet.”
As the voices finally quieted down, the girl put her full attention on Oliver, her soft gaze eased his nerves and he let out a deep exhale.
“Are you okay?” She smiled at him, so he nodded slightly while letting his body relax.
His relaxation was short-lived, because the sound of rapid footsteps entered the hall. Suddenly, the urge to get away returned back with vengeance. He hoped it wasn’t a teacher or someone who would recognize him. With shaky hands he attempted to push himself up before the arms wrapped around him halted his movements, and a deep voice rang behind him. “You shouldn’t try to get up, just relax.” Oliver completely forgot he was laying on someone, but the last thing he could do was relax. He still pushed himself up, and instead of protesting more, the guy helped him.
The students that were just surrounding him were walking towards the footsteps and were blocking his view on who it could be, unfortunately, the blonde guy from before confirmed his fears as he spoke, “Professor, a student took down the giant! It was super cool,” a smack echoed across the hallway, and he grunted before continuing, “but he got hit really badly and probably needs to go to the nurse.”
The hairs on his arm shot straight up and he willed the magic inside him, even though he felt far too weak and extremely lightheaded. Due to this whole ordeal he never got to eat anything. The boy behind him must’ve felt the tenseness that filled his body because he said, “hey, what’s wrong?” What was wrong was that his magic was squeezed out of him from all the spells earlier, and he didn’t have the energy to run. But he kept quiet as he sat there, pulling any reminisce of magic to the surface– any to help him get out.
Oliver inhaled deeply, letting it reach the bottom of his lungs. Across the hallway, the students parted, and revealed the short man that he barely got away from last time. The man’s eyebrows lifted and his hand immediately went to his wand on his side.
Oliver didn’t even hesitate, “Disappare-“ the spell was interrupted as a hand instantly slapped against his mouth. For a moment, Oliver was completely dumbfounded, as he was yanked backwards onto a warm chest. The students' attention turned back to him as the boy behind him kept his hand firmly against his mouth. The professor from before still held his wand up, as he quickly made his way over.
Oh no.
Any wiggling he started was promptly stopped from the guy behind him; he couldn’t get out. Now, a wand Oliver could do without, but he still needed to utter a spell for it to take effect. So he tried saying it again, the words muffled behind the strong grip.
No matter how hard he thrashed he couldn't get out. He was too weak, any movement he made was halted and any words he tried to speak were silenced.
Soon enough, the professor was right in front of him with his wand pointed right at him. Oliver could only stare in fear, and he continued struggling with the little strength he had.
One of his hands slipped and he shot it forward, hoping to conjure any kind of spell to make something– anything happen. But the boy behind him was quick to grab his loose arm and trap it between his chest.
His breathing picked up as the professor lifted his wand slightly, in preparation for a spell. Oliver whimpered in fear and his vision blurred as he looked up at the professor who looked pained to see his suffering.
He said, “Stupefy.”
Everything went dark after that.