Ordinary Day
It had been two months since school started and Marvin was already over it.
The actually schooling was easy, he aced every test with barely any studying, and mastered the spell work required. Sure, he wasn’t the best at dueling, often getting blown away by whatever snarky Gryffindor his professor had him duel, but he was getting by.
His friend group was tolerable, Charlotte was his stone like usual. Calling him out on his bullshit and providing him someone to rant to, to bounce ideas off when she wasn’t helping out at the infirmary. His relationship with Trina and Mendel was as strained as ever, with him and Trina always at each other throat and Mendel honestly just done with them both. But they kept seeing each other, too entwined in each others life to just stop talking. And Cordelia was a ball of sarcastic sunshine like always, and Marvin often third wheeled with her and Charlotte.
But there was moments where everything would dull and his mood would turn from okay to bad. Moments like when he turned to share a random idea he had with Whizzer, only to realize that Whizzer wasn’t there anymore. Or when he was walking in between classes and he caught a glimpse of the younger boy, either talking to a friend or staring determinedly ahead. Moments when Marvin would find himself at Ravenclaw Slytherin games of quidditch and he would only stare at Whizzer, the way his hair flowed in the wind, the was his muscles looked in the sun as he threw the ball.
The moments where his chest would ache and he just wished for the courage to talk to him again, even for just a second. But he forced himself not to, to pretend that he had moved on over the summer, to pretend that it didn’t bother him.
It bothered him. It bothered him a lot.
He was smart, he knew he was, so why did this stupid crush seem to be getting the best of him? Why did he find himself daydreaming about the time they spent together, the way Whizzer’s lips felt on his? And when he saw Whizzer in the halls, walking strong and proud despite the slurs getting thrown at him by members of his own house, why did Marvin feel the intense urge to protect him, to slam his fist into their faces or hex them into oblivion even though that wasn’t his place anymore.
God, of course Whizzer would do this to him, the infuriating boy who managed to charm him into caring for him so much that it would ruin most of his seventh year.
He resented everything Whizzer was, as annoyingly pretty as that was, but at the same time he just wanted to be around him again. To hear his snide voice teasing him, laughing at some dumb joke, to feel his arms around his or to feel him in his arms.
It was ruining Marvin’s whole image really when he would immediately change his entire mood at the simple mention of Whizzers name.
So when Charlotte, Trina, Mendel and him were on their way to the library and he heard Whizzer’s voice come out from near the lake, he was instantly on edge.
“Screw off Peterson, I’m not in the mood for this.” Whizzer was saying, his voice cold and harsh, so unlike the carefree and easy-going boy Marvin knew. Trina and Mendel frowned at each other, immediately looking over at each other and then Marvin. Charlotte stepped towards the voice before turning back to Marvin, her eyes questioning.
“Should we go see what that’s all about?” She asked carefully, and Marvin knew without a doubt that if he said no the girl would go with him. Trina and Mendel, probably not. He hesitated, listening in to the faint hints of conversation.
“Easy words spoken by the man who’s losing this fight.” The voice of James Peterson filtered through the wind, causing Marvin to frown.
James Peterson was a bully through and through, one of the worst Slytherin’s in Marvin’s opinion. In the seventh year, he was tall and large. Not the best at school or spell work, but strong enough that people feared him nothing less. If Whizzer had somehow gotten into a fight with him, he would win in a duel, but a regular fight? Whizzer stood no chance.
“Might as well.” He said, forcing casualty into his voice despite the fear bubbling up in his chest. Whizzer always managed to get himself into situations he couldn’t get out of, was this one he wouldn’t get out of unscathed.
Marvin led them, his hand hovering over where he wand was strapped to his leg, ready to be pulled out if this was as bad as he feared.
“Why don’t you come back without your goons James, see how well you fair after that.” Whizzer replied, and Marvin hurried slightly, trying to pinpoint exactly where the fight was.
He hadn’t even thought about the possibility of others being there, and for that he was truly stupid. Peter always had his four goons surrounding him, ready to do anything Peter asked, beat up or hex anyone who displeased them. Two Slytherins, a Gryffindor and even one Hufflepuff made up their ragtag group, all assholes who Marvin hated.
Marvin saw them just around the next bend in the lake, Whizzer’s back to them, his wand raised as the five assholes practically surrounded him, moving closer slowly. Marvin went a bit faster, wanting to get there before any real fight broke out. Knowing Whizzer, Marvin gave it around a minute before he said or did something increasingly stupid and got himself either hexed or beat to hell.
“I could take you any day you fucking fairy.” James snarled, and Marvin knew it was too late within an instant.
He couldn’t see Whizzer’s face, but he could practically imagine it darkening, the storm clouds inside the brown flaring to life with anger.
Whizzer was one of the only proudly out kids at school, meaning he had a lot to fight against and for, he couldn’t tolerate any slurs thrown at him. Either ignoring them with practiced ease or hexing or cursing them into the ground.
And that’s exactly what he did.
“Flipendo.” Whizzer cried, and immediately James was flying backwards, flipping in the air and slamming down into the ground.
The victory was short lived as the five remaining goon immediately jumped at him, grabbing and hitting and kicking and part of Whizzer they could get a hold of while the younger boy fought back in vain, hitting back and cursing them when he was able to.
All four of them immediately surged forwards, dashing towards to fight to lend their aid to the younger boy. Marvin was particularly angry, watching them beat on the boy he never really got over.
His wand was out in an instant and he dashed close enough so that he could start hexing them all, coming up with jinx’s and hexes on the fly shooting them at any body that wasn’t Whizzer. The others were doing the same, with Trina dashing ahead, preferring to use her fists for some reason. He mentally made a note not to mess with her when she was in a mood.
The four of them immediately started fighting back, alternating between attacking Whizzer, who was still fighting back the best he could, and fending of the newcomers. It was a giant mess of bodies and spells and curses being thrown around and Marvin wasn’t even within twenty feet of the site yet.
“Shit, there’s too many of them.” One of them cried, and Marvin couldn’t place who it was, the Gryffindor if he was correct.
“Run!” James cried out when he stood back up, still slightly disoriented from the spell Whizzer threw at him. The four of them immediately stopped throwing their hexes and beating on Whizzer, instead throwing up some basic shield spells as they bailed.
Mendel and Charlotte continued to throw spells at them, not really to actually attack them but more to discourage them from looping back. Marvin was much more concerned with shoving his wand back into his pocket and dashing to where Whizzer was kneeling on the ground, beat up and hurting.
Marvin crashed to the ground beside him, his hands hesitantly reaching out to cradle his ex-lovers face. Whizzer blinked up at him in surprise almost like he didn’t realize that Marvin was there.
Marvin could sense Trina behind him, not saying anything but still there, but he ignored her, instead basking in the moment of being so close to Whizzer again.
He could sense the warmth of Whizzer’s body, smell the faint scent of cologne that stuck to his skin, see the dark brown in his eyes.
But there was also the purpling of his eye and cheek, the bloody split in his lip and eyebrow smearing red over his face, the way he hunched into himself, cradling his ribs and hand.
“Marv?” Whizzer said, and his words were slightly slurred together, sounding confused and oh my god did he have a concussion? Charlotte was the medical person not him.
“Hey, yeah it’s me, just relax your hurt.” He responded, glancing around to find Charlotte but not seeing her anywhere.
“Nah.” Whizzer replied, pulling away and trying to raise from his knees.
“Whizzer!” Marvin cried out in protest, reaching out to support the boy as he swayed from side to side before collapsing again, this time right into Marvin’s arms.
Marvin froze for a moment, ignoring the fluttering feeling in his stomach over the fact that he was hugging Whizzer again, touching him and comforting him and he thought he might explode. He scolded himself, reminding him that Whizzer was hurt, beat up, probably concussed and most likely hit with various nasty jinxes and hexes.
Letting in a little bit he carefully cuddled Whizzer closer, making sure the boy was in a comfortable position and running a hand through his hair.
“Why do you always get yourself into these messes?” He whispered squeezing Whizzers hand where it was clasped tightly in his.
“James is a fucking dickwad.” Whizzer replied seriously and it made Marvin laugh, which made Whizzer smile, then wince due to the massive cut on his lip. Marvin shushed him, looking around and sighing in relief when he saw Charlotte running towards him, her normal med kit clutched in her hand.
She crashed down beside him, instantly looking Whizzer over.
“Hey doc, long time no see.” Whizzer said, a soft smile gracing his lips.
“Hey dipwad, injured again?” She asked with a soft smile, worried but covering it up.
“You know me.” He said, his words slurred. “Always in trouble.”
“Shut up and just let her look you over.” Marvin scolded, and Whizzer stuck out his tongue at him.
It was easy to pretend that nothing happened, that they were alright and that the last time they were together it ended with screaming and harsh words and Marvin storming out and leaving Whizzer to pick up the broken pieces.
Easy to pretend like any of them had talked to Whizzer since last year, since the last time they all got together, when it was all strained and awkward. It was easy to forget that Trina didn't practically hate him, that Mendel never bothered to know him, that Marvin couldn’t stand hearing his name, that Charlotte hadn’t been sneaking Cordelia away from him to avoid contacting him.
It was easy to pretend like they all weren’t horrible to him at moments, despite him being horrible right back.
Bu none of that mattered, because Whizzer was hurt and beat up, but he was there. That’s all Marvin could ask for.
“Do you know what kind of spells hit you?” Charlotte was asking, and Whizzer shook his head quickly.
“They weren’t the best at spell casting, mostly just stun spells I think, but I don’t know.” Whizzer responded, his eyes flicking to behind Charlotte's head. “Trina! Mendel! Long time no see, how’s the relationship going? Still strong?”
Marvin rolled his eyes at the forced pleasantries, he knew Whizzer couldn’t stand Trina or Mendel on the best of days, maybe Marvin should be more worried about a concussion.
“Uh, good. Good. We’re good.” Mendel stuttered a bit, looking a bit worn out from the fight. Whizzer nodded, blinking back at Charlotte.
“Doc?” He asked, seeing something on her face he didn’t like.
“Your going to be good, I can take you to the infirmary but I have a feeling you’d say no.” She sighed, and Whizzer shook his head to prove her point. “So I’m suggesting to go and get some rest, ice your cheek and eye and do not even go into the same room as Peterson.” She told him.
“Yeah sure.” Whizzer said, pushing away from Marvin’s arms, and Marvin frowned slightly at the loss of heat.
“Do you want me to walk you back to your dorm?” He blurted out before he could stop himself, he stared at Whizzer, not even glancing at Trina even though he could hear her sigh.
“Um, I think I’m good, I’m just going to chill here for a bit longer.” Whizzer said, finally stumbling up to his feet, he wobbled for a moment, and Marvin was up in a second, reaching out to stabilize him. Whizzer flinched away from his touch slightly.
“Is that smart? It’s getting late out and I don’t want you catching a cold.” Charlotte asked, and Marvin studied Whizzer closely.
They had been dating for almost a year, which wasn’t too long but in that time he had learned how to read Whizzer, to get to know the ins and outs of how he acted. And the smile on his face that was just a bit too wide, and the slight squint of his eyes and his fingers shoved into his robe all screamed scheming.
“He isn’t planning on going back to the dormitory.” Marvin guessed, pleased to see Whizzer frown at him, meaning he was most likely on the right track. “It isn’t safe there is it? James and his boy band aren’t the only ones your worried about.”
“I’m fine.” Whizzer replied, crossing his arms and failing to hide the wince.
“Never asked if you were fine.” Marvin shot back, before taking a deep breath. He ruined everything with Whizzer by fighting, he didn’t want to fuck it up again. “Look, you are not staying the night out here, and I have an inkling that going back to the Slytherin common room while injured is a bad idea.”
Whizzer frowned, but didn’t say anything.
“Why don’t you stay in the Ravenclaw dormitories?” Trina butted in, and Marvin turned to glare at her. “Marvin’s three roommates are out for the night on a trip for muggle studies. You won’t be caught and it would be safe.”
Marvin opened his mouth the disagree, because honestly he didn’t think he could handle that, but then he thought about it. From what he could see, it wasn’t safe for Whizzer to go back to his place, and if he could provide the younger boy a place to sleep just for the night it would be better than letting the idiot sleep outside, which Marvin knew he was debating.
“It’s either that or I’m taking you to the infirmary overnight and letting Madam Pomphrey have her way with you.” Charlotte threatened, and Whizzer paled. He hated the infirmary, Marvin knew that much. Refused to go there and would just insist Charlotte looked over him whenever he injured himself. Marvin secretly thoughts that he was terrified of Madam Pomphrey, which was valid, the lady was intense.
“Fine.” Whizzer said deflating. “You drive a hard-bargain Doc.”
Marvin sighed in relief, just knowing that Whizzer was somewhere he could look after eased some of the stress of his shoulder. He knew that Whizzer got bullied sometimes, but he also knew that Whizzer was one of the most known kids in the school and thought that nothing like this would happen.
But dickwads like James would always exist, would always be looming, just waiting for the moment to strike. If Marvin could keep him safe for just one night, it would eb a blessing in disguise.
Soon after, Trina and Mendel left for dinner, Charlotte not far behind, shooting a wink over from behind Whizzer as she left, making Marvin blush deep red.
And then they were alone, standing outside in the chilling night as the sun set, Marvin shifted from foot to foot.
“Um, should we get going? If I get you in while everyone’s at dinner I can sneak you up some food while you wait?” Marvin said, staring at Whizzer.
Whizzer nodded. “Sure.” He said, and then just walked away, not another word. Marvin tried not to feel the disappointment, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting.
It was going to be a long night.