The event at Hagrid's would set the tone for the week to come. God damn it that girl was freaking persistent! I have no idea how she figured out I was going to Hagrid, but she did! Felicitania would now hound my ass whenever she had the opportunity. Herbology was now a very tense class since she made damn sure to be close by me, asking for help or just talk and… rubbing against me. That was the worst part. I already had enough evil and disgusting notions running through my head; I didn't need despicable ones as well! I'm trying to be good here, the bad parts don't need the encouragement, they can manage on their own!
It would have been much easier if she was ugly. It would have been flattering if she was a bit older. Well... maybe not flatering since she was obviously scheming about something, that's where her real interest lay. I just happened to have what she wanted, I just didn't know exactly what it was she was after. Still, I could admit that a small, very tiny, minuscule really, part of me kinda liked it. It wasn't every day a guy got this kinda attention. It didn't make it any less annoying and frustrating though, since it wasn't genuine.
It would have been pathetic if she wasn't so damn confident, every time I'd snap at her she'd just deflect, block or absorb it. It became abundantly clear that she had a black belt in Social Kung-Fu. And while I'm no slouch I'm a brown belt at best. I had a sneaking suspicion that she might have been coached in some way. There was no way a fifteen-year-old girl could be that fast on her feet. She sure as shit shouldn't be able to drive me around the bend this easily. I knew I was being hunted; even a harem protagonist would have cottoned on to that by now. And they are the densest objects besides black holes I know about, so that's saying something. If she'd been older I might even… no, not worth contemplating. Me being somewhat rude to her didn't seem to faze her so much as encourage her. Occasionally I got the feeling that she might actually think our exchanges were entertaining! For a teenage girl, she had an inordinately thick skin it seemed. I found that slightly respectable. And as I was reluctant to escalate past my current level, let alone get physical in any way left me with either avoiding or tolerating her presence.
All according to her plan I was sure.
She was the devil… Cunning… Patient… ever-present.
It was almost impressive in a way. I can't belive that I was grudgingly impressed by her, it was clear that I was slowly going insane. Felicitania Tugwood was driving me insane, it was that simple. It was impressive. A fifteen year old girl was smacking me around. It had to be some kind of record. I'd dread to know what would have happened if I'd actually been fifteen years old. I sure as shit would not have been able to handle someone like Tugwood when I'd actually been fifteen. She would have gobbled me up and shat me out dead with zero warning. And I'd probebly have thanked her for it. I'd have bought her flowers... Heh!
At last, she left me alone when I was in the library, apparently she feared Prince more then she wanted to chew on my ass. But I couldn't hide in there forever, as much as I would want to.
I sighed, something I'd been doing a lot this week it seemed. It wasn't too bad really, I comforted myself as I walked through the school towards my room. I'd had far worse experiences for far longer. This was nothing.
"Oi! Ahlgren!" A gruff voice called out to me causing me to stop and turn around.
Behind me was a quartet of boys of which I only recognized two. One was Whovarius Horton – I only knew his name because it was oddly fitting and utterly hilarious. He was tall, a real beanpole, and the way he moved normally made him look like he was made of rubber. His head seemed weirdly bulbous as was his nose. And he had the biggest ears I'd ever seen on a human, they stood out straight from his head and looked like he could get some decent hangtime if he jump off from somewhere high. I remember wondering if he was completely human or if he had some house-elf ancestry. I also wonderd if he'd fly away if the wind caught those Dumbo sized ears of his. Believe you can fly Dumbo, you can do it!
His companion was Janus Thickey, the school Casanova. He got into trouble almost as much as Dawlish, but where poor John just had a case of bad luck Janus came by his welts honestly, by pissing off girls, usually by cheating on them, and their boyfriends for stealing their girlfriends from them. He was handsome, no doubt about that. Star quality looks for sure, sharp and symmetrical. Long dark hair that looked like it was well kept. I'd pegged him as a classic narcissist the second I'd met him. He wasn't too bright either, if rumor were to be believed, which was likely to cause me some annoyance if I was right about why he was suddenly paying attention to a nobody like me. I could smell a bully a mile away, and Janus stunk to the high heavens. I had an irritating gut feeling that I'd be seeing this clown far more then I'd like.
The two bookends I didn't know the names of. I'd seen 'em around, of course. Always riding on the coattails of their more popular leader. I'd pegged them as this times Crabble and Goyle and dismissed 'em out of hand. They looked to be just about bright enough to light a penlight between them. Ordinary, forgettable. Like me. Or like I had been. Now I apparently merited attention. Bad attention by the looks of their expressions.
"Yeah, what can I do you for gents?" I asked them while looking them over. I doubted they could pose much of a problem individually, but all of 'em together could possibly be somewhat annoying. If this escalated I'd have to neutralize some of them fast so I had some room to maneuver. It shouldn't be to problematic, I had several spells I could use to disable some of 'em fast.
"We've been looking for you, Ahlgren." Janus sneered at me with all the malice of a hormonal teenage male.
Oh boy, I had a feeling this might not go well. "Yeah, what for?"
"To tell you to step away from Felicitania." Was Janus prompt reply. "She's my girl and I don't like you bothering her."
Oh, so that's what this was about. Great, now she was annoying when she wasn't even around. That girl had some talent. I wonder if she put them up to this as a form of revenge, I wouldn't put it past her. Though I'd think she'd be a bit more subtle then sicking this moron on me. "Love to. That all?"
Apparently, the boys didn't like that. "You think that this is a joke, Ahlgren?!" Whovarius growled in what I bet he thought was a threatening manner. I'd seen drunk women that scared me more.
"More of a farce," I muttered under my breath before raising my voice a bit. "Look, gents, I don't hang out with Tugwood, she hangs out with me, against my will, I might add. If you can get her off my back more power to ya." I told them earnestly. "Best of luck."
"You think you're so damn special don't you!?" Janus accused me randomly.
Okay, color me confused. "What?"
"You got your own rooms, you don't have to be in any of the houses and you have the prettiest girl in the school hanging off you like a limpet." Janos hissed acidly. "Big important Drew, to special to slum it with the rest of us, ey? Well, you're not! And I think it's time for someone to teach you a lesson. Right boys?" he said and the quartet shared a malicious smile as they took out their wands. "What do you say to that, Ahlgren?
I admit I felt a chill shoot up my spine. I'd never fought using magic before, besides training with Paddy, and I wasn't sure how that would stack up against wizards. And there were four of them. Four fourth years to be sure, but still... I clamped down on my rising fear. I'd known something like this might happen if anyone found out that had had some special privileges. I had planned for it, several different plans in fact. I ran my thumb over the ring on my index finger; it was one of six I had on for just this sort of situation. I guess this was an ideal time to test them out if nothing else. Besides, as my anonymity had now been destroyed I needed something else to keep the schools' population from harassing me constantly.
I needed to shape a narrative that I could use.
It was time to flex those acting muscles!
---
Janus was in a foul mood, and had been for most of the week, ever since he'd heard that Felicitania had been stepping out with the weirdo, Ahlgren! The guy had no friends, was ugly and walked around with his nose in a book all the time. What the hell was a girl like Felicitania doing on the arm of a useless bloke like that?! Especially since she was supposed to be his girl! She was the hottest girl in school, and he was the coolest guy! She'd been playing hard to get for ages but he was getting to her, he could tell.
And then this dweeb showed up.
Nuh-uh, that didn't happen. No one stepped into his turf and laid hands on his girl. That just didn't happen! He wasn't sure what he was gonna do about it at first, but then he heads that this guy, Drew Alhget, Ahlgren, or whatever, was some sort of special kid. Had his own room and everything, and wasn't in any of the houses either. Which meant he was some sort of arrogant silver spoon in need of a good beating to get him down to earth. And Janus was just the man to do it. Bonus as it would show Felicitania what a weak loser he was. Girls liked guys that could win a fight, even if they denied it. And they really didn't like those that lost. Didn't look good after all. The only thing he needed to do was clean this guys bell right and proper and he would get what was owed him. Easy.
So he'd gathered up his friends and gone looking for the dork. It'd taken a while since the dweeb didn't hang out around the place like normal people. He just sat around in the library all day kissing books and rolling around in the dust. Unfortunately it also meant he was out of reach since the demon Librarian was always there and there wasn't a student stupid enough to cross that old bitch. That never ended well. There were stories of those that had tried… He shuddered. They couldn't get to him in there, so they'd headed off a bit towards where his rooms were and waited until he'd come around that way. Setting up a little suprise ambush as it were. It'd taken an hour or so, during which he'd stewed in his anger and getting good and ready for the beating to come. It would be sweet, he just knew it. And then everyone would know not to mess with Janus Thickey.
He was all arrogant and snide when they'd confronted him, but Janus knew he was afraid, he could feel it. They'd play with him a bit, nail him with a few hexes, that should teach him to stay good enough away from other people's things.
And then he felt the hairs on his neck and arms stand up and did the air suddenly feel warmer. He looked at Drew and felt a chill pass through him at the sight. There were little pinpricks of light blazing brightly where his pupils should be. And then he started to glow. He suddenly didn't look so harmless no more.
He and his boys got their wands up but Drew just raised his hand and the world exploded in light. He felt some force slam into him and hurl him down the corridor. When he got to his feet and managed to blink the spots out of his eyes Drew was nowhere to be seen and his boys were similarly picking themselves up off the floor from where they'd been thrown, same as him.
What the hell had just happened?