Lost in spells and shadows

Chapter 8: Bullies and fire

October 1971
September, with great slowness, passed and the students welcomed October with happiness. That is the younger students, since the older ones especially 5th years and 7th years, were more on edge with each passing day, with the date of their end of year final exams getting closer.

Adelaide continued her education, beside her new close friends Sarah and Alice, whom she was already attached to and Lily, who even despite not being in the same house as her, was always kind and friendly and a great friend to have. Since Severus was almost always with her, his presence was welcomed by Adelaide as he never said anything stupid and she appreciated his good talent at school. She also got close to Dorcas, and after Lily, she was the Gryffindor that she was closest to. Dorcas was very talented and had an incredible way of looking into magic despite her young age. Alice and Dorcas, surprisingly were making a close bond too. Mary and Marlene were nice too, though she wasn't as close to them.
Mary was a nice gossip and knew everything, she could make you happy with her gossips easily. Marlene had already had quite the strong playful personality that many would adapt at an older age. She was already practicing for getting into the quidditch team and idolised Victoria, who liked her very much, telling everyone that she believed that Marlene would make it into the quidditch team in the future. Avery was a good choice for someone besides Severus to have as a friend in Slytherin. Whenever they needed to team up with a Slytherin and Severus was already sitting beside someone else, she would go to sit with Avery, but as time went by, Avery was no longer a second choice but someone she really wanted to sit with. Apparently he was befriending Snape as well.

Everything was well, but there were a few issues that wouldn't make everything perfect. The first was the gang of Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin. The latter 2 weren't as troublesome, especially Lupin, but the former 2 were always in detention, even though only a month had passed of the first school year. Potter and Black would even start throwing paper or random stuff at strangers for absolutely no reason and Adelaide was dreading the day that they would learn their first hex to use on some poor unfortunate folks. They were already planning on doing that, so it would be only a matter of time till they could actually cause trouble with magic. Their bullying was on random people, but there was one exception and that was Severus. He was constantly targeted, though he learned to fight and talk back at them. But it was getting out of hand. So, Adelaide was very dreading the day they learned their first hex.

The second one was a few of the Slytherin students in their year. Though, she knew it would be a matter of time till most of them join them, but there were a few them who had started their bullying and prejudice against people of other houses and backgrounds already, and one of them was Mulciber. He never targeted her, since he was not a sacred 28 and his claim to being s pure blood could be contested, and she had a more powerful family, but when ever he would target her friends such as Mary and Lily for being a muggle born, she would defend them. And so, she also dreaded the day Mulciber would learn a hex. Because she already knew that the hexes of his choice would be rather not as childish and playful as Potter's or Black's. Mulciber bullied because he hated people but the former bullied due to boredom and causing chaos and mischief.

The third, which was becoming a rather personal problem and many people were learning it, was Somerset. After that night at the library, both of them wanted to best the other at homework, writing report, quizzes, oral exams or demonstrations. Sometimes they would argue after class who was better, but to no avail. None of them backed down and many were already placing bets on who was going to be the one to win. Though, no one knew that this competition would not just be in a year but it would drag until the end of the 7th year. Though at least none of them was trying to sabotage the work of the other, which was a relief for Adelaide. Somerset was very annoying and always found ways to get under her skin. Adelaide would work so hard and cut from her rest just so she could get better than him.