Hidden Talent

Chapter: 33

He shouldn't have expected anything different after cornering Spicer by the Lake, but it was still frustrating to watch his minion scurry away like a scared rabbit, blabbering half-formed words and excuses in his escape.

Chase both enjoyed and detested Spicer's new backbone that allowed him to defy his wishes, it made the teen more tempting in a way, but the Goth's cowardice was still present with his new ability to avoid the Warlord at every turn. But at the same time, Chase didn't come to this damned school just to end up stalking its endless halls for his own amusement!

Not that it was all Spicer's fault, Chase suspected his recent behavior and attitude towards the Warlord was due to the influence of that Hogwarts Champion he'd attended the Ball with. The boy was too oblivious to notice, but Chase had seen the clear challenge in Diggory's eyes during their interaction.

The pathetic sorcerer actually thought he stood a chance of stealing Spicer from him, Hah! The boy was his minion, Chase would just have to remind him why the Dragon Lord was the superior choice.

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"Hay, Cedric" Jack greeted his boyfriend, dropping down next to him at the Hufflepuff table, much to the discomfort of his housemates.

"Hi, Babe" Cedric grinned, looping an arm around the smaller teen's shoulders "How was your week"

"Fine, if you don't count being molested by Unicorns and everyone thinking I'm a 'Dark Wizard'" Jack shrugged.

"Oh! I heard you'd turned to the Dark Side of the Force!" Kate grinned cheekily across the table "Did they offer you cookies?"

Snorting in amusement, Cedric rolled his eyes; used to what he assumed was another Muggle reference Kate liked to make. He'd done the same when he'd heard the rumor about the little Goth; Jack may be really weird by British Wizard standards, but he wasn't evil! Utter nonsense!

"Only if I built them a new Death Star" Jack stated sarcastically before turning back to his boyfriend "Hey, you're from an old Pure-Blood family, right?"

"On my Dad's side, yeah... Why?" Cedric asked uncomfortably, not a lot of good came when a descendant of the Sacred 28 asked about someone else Blood-Status.

"Cool, I wanna ask what you think about House-Elves"

"House-Elves?" Cedric repeated in utter confusion, not seeing how that had anything to do with him being a Pure-Blood.

"Yeah, Granger asked me to join some club to free them, but I wanted to get other people's opinion first" Jack shrugged, grabbing a drink from the table "I mean, we don't have House-Elves in China so I only know what I could read about them in the Library"

"Sorry, but my family hasn't ever owned a House-Elf" much to his Mom's displeasure "We're not exactly rich"

"Why don't you ask your friend Johnny?" Kate suggested.

"I did. His exact words were: 'They're Elves, if you know they are there then they are doing their job wrong'. So I assume most wizards don't even think about them" Jack frowned in thought. That didn't seem any different from how it was for the servants back home in his opinion. Sure, House-Elves weren't paid, but they were fed and lived in their master's homes in exchange. The only problem he could find was that the Ministry didn't enforce the laws to protect them from being abused.

The way he saw it, you couldn't enslave an entire race without some resistance if the relationship had been abusive from the beginning. Elves were natural caretakers and the wizards had taken advantage of this, even if it hadn't been intentional. It was probably a slow escalation over generations since absolute obedience wasn't a natural trait, it was something done through selective breeding; like a dog's loyalty.