Trinity~A Raven and Snakes story

Prodical Son

Garreth had just taken and passed his Potion Master certification. He had seen Ominis Gaunt in the lobby of the Ministry, and had approached him to see if he wanted to celebrate. Before he could make an arse out of himself, Iris Abbott came around the corner and pulled him in for a very not-his-best-friend, kind of kiss. It was hot.

He had gone back to the Weasley chaos, and his Aunt Matilda told him that for his gift, they were sending him to a month long potion course in America. They knew he wanted to set himself apart from the potioneers in the area, especially with someone as accomplished as JJ Pippins to compete with. He wasn't sure about going all the way to America. He knew nobody there, and had heard the women were a bit uptight about sex. He couldn't tell his family he wasn't super excited, so he decided to make the best of it.

The long portkey travel turned his stomach for hours. The shops in New York were wonderful, and had things he had never seen. It was much too loud for him though. Massachusetts was much more to his taste, reminded him more of home. The trip to Ilvelmorny was also a carriage ride drawn by thestrals he couldn't see. There was a pair of girls who wouldn't stop giggling about some assistant professor for their defensive magic class. Apparently he was quite the cad. Garreth liked him already, as that was his typical post. He thought the school was beautiful, but his Hogwarts pride would not let him admit it. Their version of the great hall wasn't nearly as iconic, but he was starving. He sat at the end of a table as he wasn't a student.

He was now hearing a group of older boys talk about how a previous student had already broken two ancient curses, in his first two years as an apprentice. Apparently he was already being recruited by other nations to come consult for them. Here Garreth thought he was impressive.

He went to a week of classes and certainly learned a lot. The way they did it here wasn't better, just different. They had weird priorities he felt, they were alot less caught up in tradition. He hated their accents, uncivilized. Apparently though, the girls were quite charmed by his English accent, so he flirted a lot.

He was talking to a group of older girl students in the hallway, and they were giggling at most things he said. One of them, put her hand on his bicep and said "say anything about Hogwarts, you sound kind of like him, when you do it".

"Who is him?" Garreth laughed, feeling slightly annoyed.

"Another Englishman, he transferred here late. I don't know if he went to Hogwarts, he never talks about it. He is an assistant now part of the time, curse breaker the rest of the time". She answered.

He was going to have to meet this bloke, for now though, he was going to close the deal with this girl. "Is he as devilishly charming as me? If he isn't, I think you should go out with me tonight. She melted, and agreed.

There was another week of the classes, he had now hooked up with two girls. He was pacing himself after all. He was sitting eating again, when he saw a very confident, very handsome, obviously up-to-little good, guy stroll in. He studied him. He knew that messy, but somehow still attractive, hair. Sebastian fucking Sallow. This is where he went. Oh shit.

Now he didn't know if he wanted to talk to him. He was a cad, and a troublemaker himself, and deep down he always admired Sebastian. However, the haunted look in Gaunt's eyes for over a year was too fucking much. The sadness in Iris' voice the night he took her virginity was too much. He still felt guilty about that even though it was the closest he had come to making love to someone. He liked to think he was a harmless cad, he made sure to never over promise, and make it clear he wasn't looking for more. He had too much to figure out about himself, he was not going to settle down while super young, like everyone else in his family did.

He averted his gaze, he didn't know what to do. He avoided being anywhere near the Defensive class he knew Sebastian was teaching for the next few days. It was such a large school, he was sure he wasn't going to run into him again. He did catch a few glimpses of him....he had really filled out. Even more than Guant had, it made Garreth's stomach feel weird.