Chapter 6
ALDER EVANS
The Dueling Club was, in many ways, Alder's gift to the Muggle-borns that would come to Hogwarts after him. It was a fail-safe for them to learn and protect themselves against the rising bigotry and xenophobia that was being perpetuated by Voldemort and his followers.
Alder had no plan on letting that monster gain power and wreak havoc across the wizarding world as he had before, but he was not naive enough to think that he could defeat Voldemort on his own, at least not yet.
So, the Dueling Club was his legacy, one that allowed the Muggle-Borns to come together with other people of similar background, and move beyond the meaningless and useless House rivalries so that they may be able to survive in the wretched world that awaited them outside the Halls of Hogwarts.
It was a counter to the Pure-Blood hegemony of House Slytherin, that prayed on young innocent Muggle-borns and Alder himself had been amongst that group, and they had tried to bully him and scare him when he had come tot eh school as a first year and though they had succeeded at first, it had taken him but a few years to match their Seventh Year students in their prowess.
And ever since the incident from third year where he faced off their so-called leader to a standstill, the attacks stopped as more and more Muggle-borns, half-bloods, and like-minded pure-bloods joined his club, which had now grown to a significant number of around thirty students.
The number had ballooned this year and made it so that they were in need of a bigger classroom and more resources. The school governors, in charge of the school's money, were all pure blood and had refused to give them a knut, not that he cared much, for he had been using his personal funds to fund this endeavor, most of them gained by scouring the rather intriguing and fascinating Room of Requirements.
Still, it was a Saturday night and it was up to him to prepare everything for the meeting tomorrow and so after completing his patrol a bit earlier, he picked up the training dummy that he had spent a few weeks repairing and headed to the abandoned class room on the second floor which had been assigned to them by the Headmaster, and as he put his key into the lock, it took him a second to sense that something was wrong.
He had put a simple ward on the lock, nothing too fancy, but a simple ward that could only be opened up when someone would use their key to unlock the door. However, someone had broken the ward and had used magic to get into the room.
It could be one of his own colleagues, but Alder had an inkling that this was not so simple.
Still, he twisted open the lock and entered the abandoned classroom, wand in hand, and as soon as he did, he saw chairs broken, benches thrown across the room.
Books and notes had been torn and filled the floor, and the room itself was occupied by six rather familiar faces, who all smiled sickly as Alder entered the room.
"Don't try to run, mudblood." Rudolphus Lestrange, and the younger Lestrange brother, was as insane as one could be as he whipped his wand and closed the door behind him, as Alder found himself staring at their faces.
He could run easily. All it would take was one blinding spell, and he would be out of the room and in the Hall, but though his face may not show it, Alder was quite angry in that moment as he saw all his work and effort decimated and destroyed at the hands of petty bastards.
He was not against the Headmaster's policy of mercy and peace, yet the man was too powerful and blind to the destruction that his weak-willed nature left in its wake.
"You shouldn't have done this," he began as he looked towards Lucius, for it was well known that after Flint's graduation, he was the unofficial leader in his House, and the blonde smirked. As they all surrounded him, smiling and taunting, self-assured of their victory already.
"And you shouldn't have interfered between me and my fiancé," Alder sighed, and he should have expected this.
"You should have listened to Flint's warnings," and with that, he moved his hand, and while most wizards could never use wandless magic, Alder had been honing his skills for more than a decade.
Ever since he had learned of the world that he was in, he had begun trying to hone his magic and after years of fruitless effort, he had been able to do the first bit of magic when he had been eight and ever since then, wandless magic had become a second nature to him as he smashed one of the broken chairs into the blonde's side taking him by surprise.
"AGHHH!" Lucius grunted as he raised the wand and shouted.
"LUMOS SOLIS!"
"BOMBARDA!" "STUPEFY!" and a few other spells raced towards him, but he was not going to stand there and let those bastards corner him, as he ran towards Crabbe and Goyle, and the two of them were the slowest of the bunch, as he whipped the wand away from one of them, before he aimed a spell of his own at one of the Lestrange brother's feet.
"Bombarda!"
"AHHHHH!" and he had aimed it at the floor, but still, the spell was troublesome, and doing so made his hastily cast shield useless as dust and debris hit his eyes and ears, as Alder waved his wand, and smashed another broken table into Goyle, throwing him into the ground before he slid down.
"STUPEFY!" and the spell passed right over him and hit Crabbe in the chest as he aimed his wand at him and cast a salient Depulso at the bastard, sending him tumbling into the Wall.
"Protego!" he screamed afterward as he turned around, and the golden shield came up just in time to reflect three other spells, all aimed at him, which were sent spiraling back towards their casters, who all jumped away in haste to save their lives.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
He stood there alert and ready, as three of his six opponents now lay stunned or unconscious, while the rest all had their fair share of injuries as they scurried back to their feet with bleeding faces, all filled with disgust and rage as Alder shrugged.
"Have you had enough yet?" he asked, and the way Lucius glared at him was answer enough.
"You will pay for this, you mudblood..." Rudolphus lashed out as he rubbed his eyes and raised his wand.
"Proteg..."
"Crucio..." and even his friends seemed taken aback by his words, as Alder quickly jumped to the side as he heard Lucius's warning.
"What the hell are you doing, Lestrag..."
"Shut up!" and the other brother spoke up as well.
"Crucio..." and Alder could not jump around so easily, and a magical shield was useless against the unforgivable, so he whipped up a broken chair in the path of the spell, yet it was too late as Lucius took advantage of the opportunity and aimed a spell at him.
BOOOM! The chair broke up as the unforgivable tore into it, and Lucius's spell sent all that debris racing towards him, and as he waved it away quickly, Rudolphus was quick to react as he aimed another unforgivable at him.
"Crucio!" and while he was able to dodge it, the next spell hit him at once as even as he was halfway through his own casting.
"Lumos Solis..." but the flash of light came too late, as the elder Lestrange brother was able to aim his spell at him.
"CRUCIO!"
"AGHHHH!" and the pain tore him up, as Alder fell to the ground, his knees buckling under him as he screamed into the air.
"AGHHH!" and to this day, he had but read about the Unforgivables, and though the pure bloods had attacked him before, few had ever dared to use an Unforgivable within the school boundaries.
As the light blinded the Lestranges, he tried to reach for his wand, but it was too late as Lucius Malfoy's spell hit him in the chest, and he was thrown back into the air.
"Depulso!"
"AGHHH!" his back hit the wall as he fell to the ground, and the three ganged up on him.
"No," he gasped as he reached for his wand, but as powerful as he was, he was at a disadvantage, and he rued himself for not finishing them off when he had the chance, as Lestrange's spell hit him again.
"Crucio!"
"AHHHHH!" and he felt as if his body was on fire, that this skin and his organs were all burning up as he curled up on himself and screamed as he never had.
"What are you doing, Lestrange!" Lucius's scream came as a surprise, as he tried to fight the pain, but the pain was simply too overwhelming.
"Teaching him a lesson!" Yet just as hopelessness began to settle in, the door to the classroom sprang open as he saw a familiar figure of Tonks.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" the big man asked, and the spell broke as Alder was able to breathe again.
"Alder!" he heard his sister's scream, as he looked up and, despite the spinning world, he was able to make out her familiar face as Tonks stared at the three Slytherin boys.
"Tonks," Lucius was pale as he looked at the Headboy who stood there along with half a dozen Gryffindor boys and girls, and three prefects, leaving them no way to fight.
"This was nothing. We were just trying to help..."
"You bastards!" Sirius Black was the first to react and tried to reach for his wand.
"NO!" Tonks warned him, and the boy was usually so gentle and soft spoken that his raging voice seemed to take everyone by surprise as he aimed his wand at the three Slytherin boys.
"Wands NOW!" he demanded, and the Lestranged smirked.
"And what if we refuse, mudblood! You may be Headboy, but Malfoy here is a prefect as well," they taunted as Lily helped him up.
"You are bleeding," and he could feel the pain still lingering as his head spun, as Lily's aghast voice reached his ears.
"I will kill them!" she whispered, as a tear slid down her face.
"I will kill..."
"WANDS NOW!" Tonks asked once more, the tip of his wand lit up, as the Lestranges refused to bow down, when suddenly the shrill voice of the Transfiguration Professor tore through the room.
"What the hell is going on here...." and he had never seen the Marauders so relieved to hear that voice as Minerva McGonagall walked into the room, her lips thinning at the sight of the room as she barked angrily.
"MY OFFICE NOW!"
"He needs to go to the Hospital Wing," Ted spoke as he pointed towards him, and Lily nodded.
"Yes, he is bleeding!" she screamed as she glared at the three Slytherin boys.
"The bastards tortured him! They used the Unforgivable!" and he saw her pale at those words, as she looked at him.
"Did they really use it?" she asked him, and he nodded, and he saw the surprise and shock settle on her face as her nostrils flared as she whipped out her wand, and in the blink of an eye, three wands were up in the air, and in her hands.
"Tonks, take Evans to the Matron," she ordered as the Hufflepuff boy nodded.
"The rest of you are going to come with me...."
.
.
.
And despite the hour being long past midnight, House Gryffindor was wide awake as the students all gathered in groups and whispered and gossiped about the attack on one of their own.
They spoke of retaliation, of getting revenge as they waited for any new update on their young prefect's health, and so they all pounced towards the brown-haired McKinnon upon her return from the Hospital Wing.
"Where is he?" "How is he?" and the girl had no hint of her usual smile as she told them about Alder's condition and how the matron had insisted that he spend the night there, and how his sister would be coming back soon.
It did little to assuage their anger, but it did end the curiosity as the groups began to disband, and the students headed to their beds once more.
The Marauders, though, remained in the corner, angry, frustrated, and whispering as the brown-haired girl walked upto them.
You are planning something," she stated, as the group turned towards.
"Don't try to lecture us, McKinnon," and Sirius Black would never speak like that to her, but the scenes from that classroom had stirred up some bad memories in the boy, making him lose his temper.
"They used the Cruciatus on him! Those bastards," and she did not miss the slight shiver in his tone at the mention of the unforgivable and how he spoke with such certainty about its use.
"We are going to get back at them," Potter declared, steel in his gaze as the brown haired girl.
"Whoever said anything about a lecture?" she began, and picked up a cushion and plopped down right there on the ground.
"Whatever you guys are planning? I am in..."
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