(Arcane Tinker) Chapter 22: Scholarly Divisions

AN: Like the other AT chapters so far, this isn’t part of the weekly schedule. Tomorrow will be an AWM (EM Vol. 2) chapter, like you guys chose in the last poll.

Chapter 22: Scholarly Divisions

16th September 1991, Hogwarts

Of course, it would have been very simple if that were all there was to it. What he didn’t expect to see was a bunch of upper years seemingly hexing a small girl wearing Slytherin colours. And what was really shocking was the familiar face of one of the attackers, specifically that of his friend, Jacob McKinnon.

Dean couldn’t help but stare at his friend’s face. There was a sneer instead of the casual smile he had in the orphanage. The contrast was significant to say the least, enough to make the boy almost unrecognisable, even. It was hard to compare the violent bully, walking ominously towards a downed and crying Slytherin girl, who was practically blabbering, pleading for it to stop.

Without even thinking about it, Dean walked forward and exclaimed, “Hey! What the hell do you all think you’re doing?”

And just like that, seven heads turned towards him, and the muggleborn thought that maybe confronting half a dozen upperclassmen, whose capabilities he didn’t know, while he had less than two weeks of magical education, was probably a very stupid idea.

Each head turned threateningly towards him, with sneers growing on their faces, their attention finally away from the whimpering girl. Dean did notice that Jack’s face wasn’t angry, but frozen in panic. He hadn’t expected Dean to find out, did he? He couldn’t help but wonder why that was the case or why he was even afraid of being caught in the first place. Dean wasn’t an idiot. He would have found out eventually, so that didn’t explain the panic the older boy felt.

Of course, one of the upperclassmen, a Hufflepuff with brown hair, by the looks of it, spoke up, “How is it any of your business, Firstie. You'd better leave or else you’ll take her place.”

“I’m curious,” Dean continued, trying to think of a way to deal with the situation without ending up in the Hospital Wing, “Does it really require eight of you to attack a single girl, one who barely has been in Hogwarts for a couple of weeks? Doesn’t sound very brave, does it?”

“This isn’t a fight, Firstie,” the boy replied, “Just a little reminder for the little Snakes not to get too big for their britches.”

“Too big for their britches,” Dean repeated in a mocking tone, “Where did you learn that from, your grandfather?”

“Shut up! One more word out of you and I swear you’ll take that brat’s place.”

“Now, now. There’s no need to be so sensitive. I’m sure you’re very hip and cool, or whatever you want to call it,” the muggleborn continued without any issues, “But I’m really trying to understand the logic here. You said that this is a reminder for the girl not to get cocky, but what does that have to do with this girl in particular? Did she steal from you? Did she hex you in the back? Did she hide your homework? Is she secretly Morgana’s reincarnation, born to destroy the world order and wipe out your family, whom she engaged in a blood feud thousands of years ago?”

Dean was practically rambling, trying to think of a plan. He knew from the moment they looked at him that de-escalation wasn’t exactly possible, to say the least. He saw it in their eyes; they wanted violence.

This reduced his options to actually fighting them, something that he wasn’t confident in, given his inexperience with magic or intimidating them with his presumed unstable pyromancy. The latter sounded much better, especially since he only knew how to fight with his ring in the first place.

With his choice made, Dean raised his hand, and a small ball of fire appeared above it, hovering for them all to see. Most of the students flinched at the sight, and one of the Gryffindors there exclaimed, “I know you. You’re in my house, the muggleborn pyromancer that everyone is hovering about.”

The fact that he was a muggleborn made most of them step back, and Dean grinned, “I’ve always liked fire. It’s just so passionate, so malleable. An expression of truth and rage. There’s something beautiful when things burn, when they become what they have always been, revealing the truth within. I wonder what truths would be revealed through the feeling of the flames beneath your skin.”

Well, that little speech would likely not help the rumours of his instability, and he wanted to cringe while saying it. He wanted to say something badass, but sue him, he wasn’t exactly a poet. Dean had even increased the size of the fireball as he kept talking. And it did work, as a few of the students looked visibly unnerved.

Dean hoped that this would be it, that the Leader would back down, but if anything, it did the opposite. He raised his wand and released an orange spell at him, one that forced the muggleborn to duck to barely be able to avoid it.

Well, it seemed like intimidation didn’t work, and now, he had a fight on his hands, a magical fight that he had never thought was possible. With complete instinct, Dean threw the fireball, using his new skill to morph the enchantment on the ring to shape it into a wave the moment it touched the ground.

The leader’s eyes widened, and he yelled out, “Protego!”

An invisible shield stopped the incoming fire, but it kept pushing at him. Dean’s finger warmed as he kept powering up the ring in question, shaping the fire further to turn around the shield. The boy was able to alter the shield into a proper dome surrounding him, but it wasn’t enough to cover all of his friends. A few were taken by surprise by the move, especially when the fire morphed to take the shape of a dragon. They walked back, not wanting to be involved, but didn’t run away. A few conjured shields, obviously wishing to stay out of the fight. Dean noticed that Jack was one of them and took a sigh of relief. He wouldn’t have to fight his friend if he were even his friend in the first place.

He would still need to keep an eye on them. Now, Dean only had to deal with three opponents: the leader and two of his friends.

Dean then noticed the suit of armour right next to him, essentially suspended to stop it. He focused on it, quickly recognising the charm that kept it up and pointed his wand at it, “Finite!”

The normally resilient Charm wouldn’t have been cancelled so easily, but Dean’s spell targeted it directly instead of trying to overpower the charm completely, a perk of his being an Enchanter. The suit of armour stopped hovering and fell down to the ground, or more accurately, fell on top of the three upperclassmen, hitting one of them in the head.

However, Dean didn’t have the time to celebrate, as he felt his clothes being pulled towards them, taking him with it, noticing that the leader’s remaining fighter had raised his hand. Dean quickly noticed that the boy was wearing a metallic watch and grinned. He used his ring to heat the watch, a small trick he had learned in the Room of Requirements. The boy yelped and stopped his spell, but it was too late, and the leader had his wand ready to fire a red spell that Dean didn’t recognise.

He was barely able to dodge it and noticed the suit of armour’s shield right before him, which he used to block the spell. He hid behind it as he was bombarded by one spell after another and realised that the boy who had been hit in the head by the suit of armour had gotten up, even if he looked woozy.

They walked towards him, not giving him the time to react, and the Leader grabbed the shield. “That was very tricky, but you’re still very weak. I’ll make sure you remember that.”

“Will you also remember this?” Dean answered cheekily, while using his ring to heat up the shield. The boy yelped but still fought through the pain and threw it on the ground.

He growled, “I was planning on being merciful, since this is your first fight in Hogwarts. But I changed my mind. I think I’m going to have fun.”

The leader’s friends held him down, while the boy raised his hand into a fist, and Dean noticed that it was glowing slightly. He had no idea what kind of personal magic this was, but he definitely didn’t want to be hit with it. In complete reflex, he hit one of the boys in the balls, giving him enough to get out of their grip, before rolling away and taking the shield, grabbing him in desperation, hoping that it would stop the attack.

He felt his hands warm up as the boy landed his glowing punch, and aside from the sound he heard, he didn’t even feel it. He released the shield and looked up, and saw the leader and his followers on the ground, unconscious, while the rest of the gang was in the back, having stumbled down as well. Dean raised an eyebrow and spoke up, “Do you still want to fight?”

They shook their heads and left, leaving three unconscious boys and Dean. He relaxed slightly. He had won his first fight, despite the odds not being in his favour. Still, he had expected Jack to defend him, or do anything, not just stand back and watch. At least, the older boy stayed behind and didn’t leave with the red. He had a lot to answer for.

Dean turned towards where the girl was, only to notice that she wasn’t there. She must have run away as quickly as she could. Smart girl.

The only two still standing were Dean and Jack, and the muggleborn gave him a very unimpressed look, while the older boy gaped at him, “Holy shit, Dean.”

“Hello, Jack. You’ve certainly been busy, haven’t you?”

“You shouldn’t have interfered, Dean. Do you realise what you’ve done?”

“Stopped you from attacking a poor girl. Seriously, what the hell, Jack? Why would you do something like that?”

“I was doing it for you, idiot!” Jack yelled back.

“How would attacking a girl help me in any way?” Dean protested.

The older boy rolled his eyes, “Look, Hogwarts isn’t as nice as people pretend. There are groups here who keep things running when the teachers aren’t around, which is a lot. The whole points system doesn’t work if you have a parent who’s rich enough to buy their way out, and believe me, you’ll find no shortage of those in Slytherin.”

“So, attacking them puts them in line,” Dean answered mockingly, “That’s your rationale.”

“No, groups formed to stop them from taking over the school.”

“You’re making it sound like a gang, Jack.”

“It’s not a gang, just a group,” Jack protested, “I need to join to protect you from the others, to protect everyone from the orphanage. I got recommended by Ian Tickes, a member of the orphanage who graduated last year. My being here gives you protection, stops everyone, even the Slytherins, from attacking you or anyone from Willowbrook. Do you get it now?”

Dean raised an eyebrow, “You’re not really helping the gang argument since you’re essentially talking about a protection racket or something. And I still don’t see why attacking a Slytherin girl helps in any way.”

“For the last time, it’s not a gang, and it’s the Slytherins who asked us to do it. They do it every year for the newcomers to make them more attached to their house, a way to show that they need protection. If we didn’t do it, someone else would have anyway. Not that it matters anymore. You screwed it up. Graham is not going to take this lying down, especially the Upperclassmen. You made things very complicated for me.”

Dean couldn’t help but worry about it. “Do you need any help?”

“I think you’ve helped enough, Dean. For the last time, leave it alone, and please stop trying to help me. What you did here will get people to stop bothering you for a while, but they will inevitably try something, so be very careful. Still, I think I get now why you were sorted in Gryffindor, huh?”

“Jack,” Dean called out, only for the older boy to turn and leave him alone with three unconscious students, and signs of spell fire everywhere. Yes, this was a mess.

Dean looked at the shield and realised that there was another positive to this entire mess. He had just successfully enchanted another item, the shield, which reflected the attack back. He knelt down and grabbed the item in question, with a small smile on his face. That was a very nice step forward. He walked towards the Room of Requirements. He needed to study exactly what it was that he did to try to replicate it again.

He had a lot to think about, after all.

AN: Like I said above, this isn’t part of the weekly schedule. Tomorrow will be an AWM (EM Vol. 2) chapter, like you guys chose in the last poll.

As for this chapter, the plot is moving on a bit, and I hope you like the direction it is taking. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.