Chapter 8
She reels from the strike of my wand. The whole class goes sient, shocked. She gapes at me, a red mark across her face, I can see the tears welling up.
But I don’t feel bad. I don’t. She let it escalate this far, she was willing to set me on fire, which we are told specifically not to do.
I turn to Snape and say possibly the most insensitive thing possible: “Point?”
Hatter is coughing behind him, attempting not to laugh.
The class is roaring with laughter, I can tell Pansy is not too popular in this school. Snape blanches, I can’t tell if he is amused, horrified, or just confused. Maybe all three?
“Go sit down,” he says, “Ten points from Ravenclaw.” I didn’t intend to lose points for my house but it was worth it. I see another Ravenclaw in the second row grinning ear to ear, giving me a thumbs-up.
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Snape disappeared into his office, telling us he had work to do, and promptly leaving Hatter in charge. Hatter did a good job at moderating the matches. He was very fair and occasionally stepping in to demonstrate spells or to trash-talk students.
“You call that a shield?”
“WEAK!”
“Are you a bloody first year? Why are you doing that?”
“I disappear for a little bit, and THIS is what they’re teaching?”
It works fine for me though, I get work from other classes done. I still listen to the duels, but Hatter is starting to remind me of that angry chef who yells at everything.
I’m so caught up in my transfiguration homework, that I’m startled when he sits on my desk. “Pay attention, love.” he says with a wink. But I know what he really means: pay attention to ME. I cross my arms and lean back in my seat. He returns to yelling at the two boys standing on the platform.
“Seamus, what in the hell are you doing with your wand?”
One of the boys standing on the platform shrugs, baffled.
Hatter faces me and leans in close, “I’m going to need your wand for a moment, love.” he breathes.
Heat rushes to my face as I hand it to him. He takes it and strides onto the platform. Shooing the other boy off, and facing Seamus.
He walks with an overconfident swagger that I can’t take seriously.
“Wands up!” he calls. “Begin!”
Ten minutes later, Seamus has exploded multiple things, and set Hatter on fire, but is eventually defeated by him, him, whose shirt is in tatters, pants singed, and is literally smoking.
He presses his wand to Seamus’s chest.
“I. Win. You fucking twat.” he huffs, covered in sweat.
Seamus nods feebly, just as the chimes sound to go to our next class.
Snape returns to the classroom from his office. His eyes take in the room. Things are smoking, some are destroyed, and his student teacher Princess carrying an unconscious Seamus out the door.
“Good lesson today!” Hatter tells him before exiting the room.
I walk with Hatter through the hall, “You go ahead to study hall,” he says, “I’ll take Seamus to the hospital wing.”
I raise an eyebrow, “But what if you pass out?”
He laughs, “That would be quite the predicament, I guess you’d have to drag us both there.”
“Then maybe I don’t want to,” tease.
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I do though, I do come with him. I’m sure we gave the nurse a heart attack though, walking in, both scorched and dirty.
Seamus is conscious now, laughing to the nurse, who smacks him over the head. Hatter is fine, just gross.
I sit on the hospital bed next to Hatter, “I’m getting deja vu.” I tell him. He smiles, “Awwww, are you gonna give me a hug?” he opens his arms, he’s covered in soot, and what remains of his shirt shouldn’t even be called a shirt. “Uh, no,” I say.
“You’re just like the medical attendant,” he laughed, “she just wrinkled her nose at me and told me to take a shower!”
“Wait, do you have any extra clothes?” I ask.
He thought for a moment, “There should be a box of clothes somewhere in Dumbledump’s office somewhere…”
I nodded, “I’ll find it, you can go to my dorm and shower, hopefully, that spell on the doorway won’t be up anymore.”
He smiled, “That's a wonderful assumption, darling.”
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Judging from the amount of shouting, some of the teachers would suspect someone was either being murdered or robbed. Rather, it was Hatter celebrating as he easily slipped through the doorway, “The old sot must’ve gotten lazy,” he laughed.
Camly, I walked a few stairs ahead of him, “Most likely we just got lucky, but I’m glad you find this funny.”
“But also, like, how do you climb these stairs every day, I’ve got no bloody clue how you weren’t sweaty and gross when you came to pick me up this morning.”
I turn back to raise an eyebrow at him, “Sweaty and gross, like you?”
He gasps, “You’re so mean! Race you to the top!” Immediately he shoots forward. Surprised, I sprint up, trying to catch him. “You can’t beat me that easy!”
I have the advantage over him though, he doesn’t know that my room is below the very top. When we reach my floor, he shoots right on past.
“I WIN,” I shout.
Loud cursing. He reappears from above, trudging down the steps. “So I guess you do win.” Smiling and stepping forward, I grabbed the remains of his shirt, “Yeah,” I said, “I do.” I yank his shirt down and pull his face to mine. He’s surprised, I can tell.
I feel the soot smearing on my face as he starts to wrap his arms around me..
“Oh, no,” I say, “You’ll get me dirty.” I pull out my key and unlock the heavy wooden door. “You go take a shower, I’ll get the box from Dumbledore’s office” he looked at me like I was crazy “Okay,” he said hesitantly.
“You can come with me if you want, I just thought it would be quicker if I went while you showered.”
“No it’s just-” he sighed.
“What?”
He opened his mouth and then closed it a few times. “It’s nothing, forget it”
“Okay… are you sure you don’t want to come?” I asked again. “Yeah I’m sure, just be back soon” he sighed.
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I hurried down the hall to Dumbledore’s office. Climbing the spiral staircase.
I opened the door. I looked around for a starting place to search. Startled, I see my student transcript lying on the top of his desk, I had missed it earlier this morning.
Oddly, it had obviously been looked over several times, parts were highlighted and little notes scribbled.
“Good choice,” I read aloud, “not involved with anything, no connections, won’t be noticed if went missing-”
I was so confused by his notes, they were very deprecating of me, although, they were true. But that’s not why I came down here.
Ignoring the lump in my throat, I turned my attention back to my search. Hatter’s words echoed in my head, ‘just be back soon.’
I noticed a closet. Shoving the door open, I blew a cover of dust off the top of a box. Could this be it?
I open it, the cardboard is soft, worn as leather. It’s piled with clothes, haphazardly thrown into it. A faded Beatles and Fleetwood Mac t-shirt, and three pairs of jeans, one of them bell bottoms.
I put the items back in the box, frowning when I see a glint of something shiny. Pushing the things aside, I dig it out. It’s a locket. A faded photograph, the picture’s quality is terrible, but I can make out a smiling woman with dark hair twisted into a bun and on the other side, a girl about my age with wavy hair cascading over her shoulders.
I feel an unexpected pang of jealousy over this mystery girl. She’s beautiful, and undoubtedly from Hatter’s past. I shake my head, put it back, and lift the box. This is coming back with me, I’ve already taken a while, and he probably is thinking that right now.
~to be continued~