Eldrad's eyes narrowed and he quickly raised his wand, incanted sharply and threw a cutting hex at her left cheek. She dodged most of it, but it still grazed and cut the skin.
"You know, you're quite pretty, Zabini. How about we have some fun?"
"How about you rot in Hell?" Blaise shot back.
Cronio and Doinkie grabbed her arms as Eldrad came towards her. Her icy composure just about used up, she began to cry when Eldrad grabbed her chin and looked into her eyes, grinning a lopsided smile. Harry recognized that look as the one Lucius Malfoy had when he was caught raping a Muggle in one of his raids.
As much as Harry wanted to allow Blaise to work this out on her own and create her own reputation as one to be avoided, it was time to intervene.
" Accio wands !" Harry seemed to suddenly appear a few meters away from the group. All four wands flew to his open left hand. His right still held the shadow wand and if he could have seen himself, he would have noticed that his eyes had gone black again.
" Expelliarmus !" Harry hissed in a cold voice that had the intention of knocking the three boys off their feet and sending them a few meters away to land roughly on the cold ground.
Harry rushed to a now-sobbing Blaise and comforted her as best he could, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Sshhhh. It's okay. They're not going to hurt you. Here, which wand is yours? Go on, take it. I need to talk to these tossers about their attitude."
"Thanks, Harry," she managed through tears.
This was a far cry from the persona that Blaise normally showed. Only a first year, and she was already known as a future Ice Queen. She acted cold and didn't talk much to her classmates. Some students think she was stuck up, others thought she had a personality disorder. However Harry understood why. It was how her family raised her that she ended up like that.
To be ruthless and cold hearted; show no mercy to those who oppose you…
A cold mantra, but one that served them well over the centuries. The head of the house had turned their house into a workhorse on the political scene. Being neutral had its advantages, but as Blaise just found out, it also had its disadvantages. With no friends to speak of (at least in Slytherin), she had been caught alone by some older bullies.
Harry walked to the threesome now starting to get off the crusty grass. Harry tossed their wands to the ground and walked over to the leader of the gang.
"Leave her alone, Eldrad. From this moment forward, she's one of my close friends. Harm her… and I'll make sure no one will ever find your body."
"Big talk from a little apprentice," Eldrad sneered, grabbing his wand. His two goons followed suit and soon enough all three were surrounding Harry.
This time, however, the first year wasn't the least bit intimidated. "Keep in mind what I said, Eldrad."
"You lost the element of surprise, Potter," Eldrad said, nodding to his goons to grab his arms. "Now I'm going to show you why you shouldn't have let your guard down."
" Diffindo," Harry said casually, not even bothering to point his wand.
A large cut appeared on Eldrad's cheek. His hands went to the sticky sensation on his face and after seeing the red on them, his eyes bulged.
"Who said my guard was down? Now why don't you take you and your girlfriends back to your room and get someone to stop the bleeding."
"Firshn…" Eldrad started but Harry stopped him with a quick punch to his mouth and nose. Bone on bone contact always hurt, but Harry had had worse in his life. Try meeting Voldemort with low occlumency shields. He'd heal his hand later if need be.
Eldrad went back down to the ground. The two goons who had been trying to restrain Harry's arms were let go of the silent body bind he'd placed them in. "Get your boyfriend some help to stop the bleeding. If any of you report what happened here, I'll make sure to do a lot worse. Got it?"
The two goons (confirming to Harry that Goyle and Crabbe weren't the only mindless Slytherins in the house) nodded, grabbed their friend and raced for the castle.
Harry was furious that anyone had tried to pull something like this. It didn't matter if Harry hadn't known Blaise or not, the fact that someone in his school had been about to sexually assault someone made his blood boil. He needed to find Filch and see what kinds of evil tortures he could come up with for the three boys. Simply cleaning the bathrooms wasn't going to do it. There needed to be something else. Especially when he caught them doing this again and knowing that type of mentality, it wasn't a matter of if they'd do it, it was simply a matter of when .
Wards. He needed some wards. He needed to check that subject out next.
Once out of his mental checklist of books to search, Harry looked around and noticed Blaise was still taking in deep breaths while leaning against the wall. He went to help the blond Slytherin.
"Are you okay? Really okay?" Harry asked softly.
She began to sniffle and sobbed as a response. She no longer cared keeping her cold Zabini expression; she was too teary to hold it in.
Harry immediately comforted her (again) and whispered that everything was going to be okay.
"Thanks again, Harry," she whispered softly.
Harry nodded and held her close. "What are friends for?"
And as Harry quickly came to find out, Blaise did become his friend. She joined him at breakfast with his other friends who were quick to accept the quiet Slytherin. She even joined his library study session on occasion, and one time her composure crashed and burned when Harry told a particularly dirty joke and she laughed.
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