Trouble Maker
Avi was wandering around the castle aimlessly. It had been a week since school had started, but he had never felt so isolated before. Back in his old life, he had never had anyone he looked forward to seeing. It's hard to realize how lonely you are if you have nothing to compare it to to begin with. At least back at the cottage, Severus had time for him, but now he was always off teaching classes or grading papers. The other professors had been kind enough to let him help them during their prep periods to give him something to do.
Flitwick had been teaching him basic household charms and even letting him borrow an old wand to practice. It was apparently fine for wizarding children to use a parent’s spare wand to learn magic at home, but nobody was allowed to have their own wand until they started school. Using a wand that was perfectly in tune with your personal magical core too early could magnify accidental magic and become dangerous. That’s why wixen didn’t start school until the age of 11 when their core was more stable and less prone to outbursts.
Sprout had been letting Avi help tend the greenhouses with her close supervision. He found that he kind of liked gardening when he didn’t have to meet Aunt Patunia’s strict standards or work for hours under the blazing sun. He wasn’t the greatest at tending the magical plants and often made mistakes, but Pamona was always kind and gentle in correcting his work.
Even McGonagall had taken an interest in Avyaan once she discovered he was training to become an animagus. She had been helping him on Fridays to meditate and try to visualize his form. She was a great help and eager for him to win his wager with Severus. Apparently she had not known that he had achieved his animagus transformation and true to her form was bursting with curiosity.
But all of the professors had to teach and so Avi was still often left with nothing to do. He could go to the library like he usually did to research animagus forms. The Hogwarts library was huge and had a whole section of the library on transfiguration and even a full bookshelf specifically on animagi! But Avi had spent most of his free time this week in the library buried under books and if he was honest his eyes needed time to recover.
But what was he supposed to do? Some kids were milling around the castle, studying or goofing off during their free periods, but most of the kids avoided Avi. Sure, Severus had introduced him to the Slytherins as the son of their Head of House and the green-clad students had been kind. The Slytherin students had been keeping an eye on him in the halls, taking Snape’s warning that rivalries between the houses might target Avi as a way of getting back at the potion master. Avi had been careful around the other houses since his speech, but other than the frantic whispering that put him on edge nothing had happened.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure why there was such a big fuss about his safety. Sure he didn’t like all the staring from the older kids, but by now most of them just ignored him. In his old life, he would have been grateful to be so ignored. Drawing attention to himself had always been a surefire way to get a beating. Especially if the attention was positive. One of the worst times he got in trouble was when he got his first report card in kindergarten. He had scored nearly top of his class in everything except for reading. Harry had been so proud to show his aunt how good he had been at school, thinking she might even let him eat a full portion of dinner for once. Instead, she had been furious at him for using his ‘freakishness’ to cheat and make her baby look bad. They ended up having to tell the school he had caught the flu to explain why he had to stay home the next week. The punishment had been so bad that Harry hadn’t been able to see straight afterward. The school nurse eventually convinced his aunt that the ‘fever’ must have damaged his optic nerve and prescribed him glasses.
Avi touched the metallic navy rims of his new glasses. He still couldn’t believe that Severus had brought him new glasses, even though he wouldn’t need them for more than a year. Severus had been brewing Avi a potion monthly that was slowly repairing the damage to his eyes bit by bit and had even paid extra for the lenses in his glasses to be prescription adjusting so he would always have perfect eyesight while he healed. Something about that memory made something glow warmly inside Avi’s chest. Harry had never had anyone care that much about his well-being in his entire life. Sometimes he was so glad he wasn’t that person anymore.
Avi was so lost in thought that he didn’t even see the two students until he had already crashed into them. He landed hard on the cold stone floor of the castle hallway looking up in confusion at the red-headed boy dangling from the top of the tapestry on the wall. “Fred! What the hell!” he yelled as he kicked his legs frantically.
Another redhead jumped to his feet from where Avi had knocked him down. He looked like a carbon copy of the first. “Sorry, George!” he said as he grabbed the other boy’s legs and placed them back on his shoulders.
George sighed in relief and got back to work on whatever he was doing up there. He glanced down at the two of them and asked, “What happened?”
Avi stood up and held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry I wasn’t watching where I was going,” he cocked his head to the side in confusion, “What are you doing?”
The one on the bottom, Fred, turned to look at Avi, making George flail his arms to keep his balance. “Shhh!” Fred held a finger to his lips urgently. “Do you want the whole castle to find out? Markhart’s class is about to let out!”
There was a click from above and George smiled down at them. “All set!” He hopped off his twin’s shoulders and grinned. “Come on!” he commanded, pulling both Fred and Avi behind the cloth just as the bell chimed and the classroom door opened.
Ahron stepped out behind his class, watching the students leaving like he suspected them of something sinister. The green-clad students watched him with resigned wariness in return as they walked away. Avi held his breath as the hot-tempered teacher stopped right in front of their hiding spot. Fred and George began to whisper, “Three…Two…One…”
There was a pop and a hissing noise. Avi watched transfixed as pink threads that he recognized as Silly String began to rain down, tangling around the professor and sticking to his hair. The man shrieked and tried to hide his prized fedora under his cloak, frantically trying to finger-comb the sticky substance from his hair. Markhart pointed his wand at the contraption that was spitting the sticky webbing all over the hall and blasted it to smithereens, causing the tapestry to come crashing down. Avi could do nothing as he and the twins were revealed.
Ahron immediately shoved his wand into Avi’s face, pinning the boy to the wall between the twins. “How dare you!” Ahron leaned into Avi’s face as he raised his hands in surrender. Avi let out a pained whimper as the man’s wand dug into the sensitive skin of his throat, memories of his old life threatening to take over and send him into a panic. “I knew no good would come of letting that Death Eater’s spawn roam these halls!”
Fred and George tried to get in between the seven-year-old and the Hit Wizard, but the professor just shoved them aside. Markhart grabbed the boy by the back of his cloak and dragged him down the hall, scruffing him like a disobedient puppy. Several of the older Slytherins tried to reason with the professor, but he just shoved them aside. Avi tried to struggle, but the man just shook him hard and pulled him along, parading him through the halls in front of all the other students getting out of class for the day. Avi’s face burned with shame. His heart was hammering in his chest and his breaths were coming in terrified pants as the Defense Professor drug him into the Headmaster’s office and all but threw him at the old man’s feet.
Dumbledore stood, “What is the meaning of this, Professor Markhart?”
“Use your eyes, Albus! Look at what the brat has done to me!” He stomped his foot as if he wanted to kick Avi, who was curled protectively on the ground. “I told you! I told you nothing good would come from letting this poisonous little snake roam the halls! Look at what he’s done!”
Avi covered his head expecting blows at any moment. His uncle’s voice ringing in his ears. Distantly, he could hear footsteps stomping up the stairs. “Headmaster! It wasn’t Avi’s fault!”
Fred and George came charging into the office, standing between Avi and the two men. One (Fred?) knelt down to check on the terrified child. Avi clung to the older boy. His body shaking with sobs, he hadn’t even realized he was crying until then. Fred carded his fingers through Avi’s hair in a soothing gesture while George yelled at the professors. “We were the ones that set up the prank, not Avi! He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!”
The Headmaster frowned at the two in disappointment. “My boys, I don’t understand. I know you often find yourselves in mischief, but why go out of your way to Prank a professor? Especially one from Gryffindor's house?”
Fred huffed in annoyance, still rubbing Avi’s back in soothing circles as the boy hiccuped threw the last of his panicked sobs. “He made Percy cry. Made fun of him in class for being so ambitious in class. Said he wasn’t worthy to be in Gryffindor and should have been placed in Slytherin instead.”
“Is that true, Markhart?”
The man snorted, completely unrepentant. “That Weasley is obviously defective,” he said raising his hands in a shrug. “He’s constantly trying to outshine his peers in class, it’s no wonder he has no friends.”
George balled his fists, “What did you say?” He stalked towards the professor, his warm brown eyes tinged with red. “Nobody gets to make fun of Percy except for us!”
Dumbledore stepped between the two before the argument could escalate further. “Now, now gentlemen. While your loyalty to your family is commendable, it is against the rules to prank your professors. You both will serve a detention with Professor Snape this evening. I believe he is already supervising another Gryffindor today and won’t mind two more.”
Markhart smirked as the trio left the office, muttering under his breath, “Snakes in lion’s clothing.”
Fred hunched his shoulders and George balled his fists in anger before placing a palm on each of their backs and steering them out of the room. “Don’t let him get to you,” George whispered in Fred’s ear as they walked down the hall.
Calmer now that he was away from the volatile man, Avi looked between the two older boys. “Why does everyone act as if being called Slytherin is an insult? It’s just another house right?”
George nodded as he led the two younger boys to an alcove for some privacy. “There is nothing wrong with being a Slytherin, but they have gotten a bad reputation from the last war. A lot of wixen believe that their fundamental traits are what caused so many of their number to choose the wrong side of the war.”
When Avi just looked more confused, Fred continued, “Ambition can be a bit of a double-edged sword, you see. A lot of people did awful things during the war in the name of power, but people forget that it isn’t the only thing ambition is good for.”
George nodded, “Percy was almost sorted into Slytherin his first year. He has always wanted to get a job in the government and help make laws that will change our world for the better. He was terrified when the hat suggested it, worried our mother wouldn’t approve. He almost had a panic attack in front of the whole school. I think the hat just took pity on him and put him where he wanted to go.”
Fred nodded, “The hat did the same thing for me. George, as the oldest, had already been sorted into Gryffindor. It wanted to put me in Slytherin, but I kept arguing with it. I didn’t want to be separated from George.”
George hugged his brother and Fred smiled before he looked back at Avi. “We know there is nothing wrong with being a Slytherin. Heck, our best friend Lea's big sister is in Slytherin! That’s why Ahron’s comments made us so mad. He had no right to make fun of Percy like that. He is still insecure about what the family would think if they found out, although he told me about it after he saw me arguing with the hat at my sorting.”
George patted his shoulder. “Come on. We better escort Avi back to the dungeons. Don’t want Professor Markhart catching him all alone in the halls.
As they walked, Avi's curiosity got the better of him. "Where did you guys get the Silly String? I didn't think the wixen world had anything like that?"
"Found it in Dad's shed," the one on his right answered.
"We revere engineered it with charms and potions to make it impossible to get off without our counter potion," the other smirked.
"He'll have to apologize to Percy if he doesn't want to have to cut it out of his precious hair!" they sang together.