Alec del Signore and the Forgotten Book

Fight and Flight

For the rest of the week, Alec was too busy with his classes to worry about his concerning dream.
    For starters, they had Charms with the Ravenclaws on the third floor. Charms was taught by a wiry little man called Professor Flitwick -- he was the one that Arthur's brother Andrew had said used to be a pro dueler, but unfortunately, Alec couldn't see it. Although clearly intelligent and a good teacher, Professor Flitwick might have been too close to the height of a goblin to hold his own in a duel. Of course, appearances could be deceiving, and Charms class was clearly going to be very enjoyable -- Flitwick had already promised that his class would teach them the most spells of all.
    Transfiguration also proved to be very interesting indeed, although strenuous. Professor McGonagall opened their first lesson with a lecture on the dangers of Transfiguration, and also the difficulties her class may entail:
    'Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,' she had told them the moment they had sat down. 'Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.'
    Then, effortlessly, she transfigured her desk into a snorting pig and back into hardwood again. All the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were very impressed, but it was clear that they wouldn't be summoning pigs for a very long time in her class; by the time Friday rolled around, they were still learning the Theory of Transfiguration and the Transfiguration Alphabet.
    Transfiguration had been followed by Defense Against the Dark Arts the next day. Professor Bacri taught this -- Alec and Arthur had been aching to get into this class. The type of spells they would be learning here sounded very interesting to them, especially when being used, for example, to curse Cowen Yaxley. In their very first lesson, Professor Bacri explained to them that their curriculum for the year would be split into two sections: Creatures, and Spells. Creatures would be first and, while knowing everything about Imps there was to know was interesting in its own way, it unfortunately couldn't combat Yaxley's large mouth (much to the disappointment of Alec and Arthur).
    Finally, at midnight every Wednesday, the Gryffindors trudged up to the Astronomy Tower to be taught by Professor Sinistra about the stars and planets above them as they looked through their telescopes. Alec found himself unable to enjoy this class, especially due to the fact he had to wake up in the middle of the night and spend a bleary-eyed hour at heights too tall for a half-asleep person.
The last class of Alec's first week was Double Charms with the Ravenclaws. They had finished up learning about Lumos, the Wand-Lighting Charm, and had been assigned a six-inch scroll on its uses, origin, and incantation.
'So what do we do on the weekend?' Guin asked.
Alec shrugged, but Arthur said, 'You guys could come visit Hagrid with me.'
Alec and Guin shared a glance. Could he mean who they thought he meant?
'Hagrid? You mean, the giant?' Guin asked
'Yeah, the one that lead us to Hogwarts,' Arthur agreed. 'I wasn't lying, he really is great.'
Alec glanced once more at Guin. Clearly both of them felt a bit of apprehension, but they had found no reason not to trust Arthur, so they both shrugged. 'Okay.'
They were passing from the Charms corridor to the staircase leading up to the Gryffindor common room and dorms. Entangled in conversation, they did not notice that they were walking straight towards the two most dislikable students in their year, Cowen Yaxley and Mariah Flint.
'Going to visit Hagrid, are you?' Yaxley said coolly. 'You know, I've heard he's a bit of a savage. Got into a bit of trouble a few years ago, didn't he? Hogwarts couldn't trust him anymore?' He grinned smugly at Mariah. 'Of course, that's about the type you enjoy hanging around, right, del Signore?'
'At least I'm not hanging around with you,' Alec shot back angrily. 'I'd rather play chess with a troll.'
Yaxley's lip curled up. 'Aren't you already?' he asked icily. 'The Mudblood in front of me looks just like one.'
Many things happened at once. For instance, there was a loud bang, and every head in the corridor looked towards them. Both Alec and Arthur had drawn their wands and fired the first spell they knew off of the top of their heads. Alec had cast Locomotor Wibbly, a curse his Aunt Vikki had taught him in case he ever had to protect himself in an emergency. It hit Cowen Yaxley right in the chest and his legs collapsed from beneath him. Whatever Arthur had casted had gone between the shoulders of Yaxley and Mariah Flint, which gave the latter enough time to draw her wand and shriek, "Filum Ruinam!'
A purple jet of light shot from her wand and caught Arthur in the shoulder; immediately, his legs flew out from beneath him and he crashed down hard on his back, causing quite the clatter. He groaned in pain and Alec drew his wand to defend the three of them as he noticed Yaxley raising his wand up once more from his laying position.
There was a shout, and then suddenly, all of their wands raised high in the air, even the one from Guin's pocket, who hadn't cast a spell. A cold, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, Alec turned around to see Professor Flitwick coming towards them, splitting through the students. He had a rather angry look on his face.
'What have you been doing!' he exclaimed, casting spells with his own wand to reverse the damages they had done on each other. Arthur brushed himself up as he stood up. 'It has been made very clear in the rules of Hogwarts that dueling is absolutely prohibited!'
All five of them looked down. The students in the corridor all watched interestedly.
'Someone explain to me what happened. Immediately.'
Professor Flitwick looked around at them for a few moments as nobody spoke. Then, with a glance at Arthur, Alec finally said,
'Well, we were talking about Hagrid, sir, while walking down the corridor, and then Yaxley said that he was a savage, and that Hogwarts didn't trust him. He told me I shouldn't hang out with people like that, and I told him that anyone at all was better than him. Then he called Guin a mudblood, and me and Arthur—'
'Wait — you what?' Flitwick had cast an extremely furious gaze upon Cowen Yaxley. When Yaxley didn't say anything in response, he turned to Guin and asked, 'Is this true?'
Meekly, she nodded.
Flitwick took a deep breath. Yaxley didn't look so brave anymore. 'Flint, Longbottom, and del Signore, you will each be given a ten house-point demerit for endangering actions to another student. You will also be serving a detention each, which will we be ordered to you on Wednesday. Ms. O'Malley, it doesn't appear that you took part in this dueling, so I will not be punishing you. However,' he said, casting a pointed gaze upon her, 'I have to recommend that, in order to stay out of trouble in the future, you find yourself some better company.'
Alec and Arthur both looked down, embarrassed. Guin blushed.
'Yaxley, come with me.' He grabbed Cowen around the arm, and then he set off, tugging him along with him.
Alec, Arthur and Guin headed up to the Gryffindor common room in silence. They didn't talk at all the entire time they were on the staircase, other than to utter the password Nux Myristica to the Fat Lady. In fact, the silence lasted so long that they were sinking into Gryffindor's common room's plush armchairs before they spoke again.
'I hope Professor Flitwick gives something terrible to Yaxley,' Arthur said darkly. 'I hope he has detention for a month. Or maybe he'll have to write lines — I must not be a prejudiced prat. I must not be a prejudiced prat.'
    Alec, who had begun to laugh, suddenly glanced over to Guin, who looked not quite as amused as they were. Awkwardly, he said, 'Err... Guin, are you okay?' He could feel heat rising to his ears — why didn't he have something better to say.
    Arthur stopped grinning. 'Oh, yeah... I'm sorry, Guin, I — it must suck to be called that.'
    Guin shrugged, but Alec could tell it bothered her a bit more than she wanted to show. 'It's fine, it doesn't mean anything, not really.'
    Alec's Aunt Vikki had been very clear to him about blood purity and her opinions on it. Explicitly, she had told him that the purity of his blood did not make him any better than Half-Bloods or Muggleborns, and that if she ever caught him using any foul terms for a Muggleborn, she would ban him from Quidditch for life.
    'Want to play Exploding Snap with us, Guin?' Arthur proposed, nodding at a group of first and second years that were starting a game on the floor a few paces away.
    She hesitated for a moment, then said, 'Um, no, I think I'll pass. I... I might go read in the girls' dormitory, Lucy's probably up there.'
    Alec and Arthur watched her go, and then looked around at each other.
    'It was worth the detention,' Alec finally decided. 'Yaxley's the biggest prat in the world.'
    Arthur agreed, glancing darkly at Alec. 'Have you heard of his family?' When Alec shook his head, he continued, 'Rumours are that his dad fought with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the Death Eaters during the Wizarding War — y'know, the one Harry Potter and my dad fought in.'
    'Really?' Alec exclaimed. 'Then why isn't he in Azkaban?' Azkaban was the strongest of the wizarding prisons in the world.
    'Well, that's the thing,' Arthur said; 'he was. Once, at least, but then Voldemort broke him out along with some other of his followers before the battle started. After the war was fought, the Death Eaters were all caught and thrown in Azkaban — but Yaxley wasn't there.' Arthur looked around and leaned closer to whisper to Alec; a curious second-year girl had looked rather interested in their private conversation.
    'Where was he?' Alec whispered.
    'He turned up a few days later, said he'd been lost in the woods for ages. He told the Ministry, after they took him into custody, that he had suddenly woke up there, as if he'd been under a curse for a long time.'
    'The Imperius Curse,' Alec guessed.
    Arthur nodded darkly. The Imperius Curse was one of the three Unforgivable Curses, the spells that would get you a sentence in Azkaban for casting. The Imperius Curse allowed the caster to take full control of the victim, as if they were a puppet.
    'So they let him off, then,' Alec said.
    'Yep,' Arthur agreed. 'Scotch-free. I mean, there's no proof that he wasn't — under the curse, I mean — but there's also no proof he was, and with how evil his prat of a son is, I would guess the latter.'
    Alec frowned at the staircase to the girls' dormitories. He had known Cowen Yaxley was rude, and very unlikable, but the information about his father put him in a brand new light. Perhaps there was more to it — perhaps Cowen Yaxley wasn't just a purist prat, but maybe even evil, under the guise of his father...