Enchanted

Don't stop now

A few weeks have passed since Brett came to Hogwarts. Eddy was tracing his fingers amongst the old books in the library when he heard Brett's voice across the hall.

"Why did you have to make Chaconne so hard to play?"

Silence.

"Did you hear that version Hilary Hahn played? It was freaking amazing, just listen to her phrasing-"

Eddy quietly walked toward the voice, leading him to the music room at the corner of the library. There, he spotted Brett sitting beside the stairs, talking to the Bach portrait on the wall.

"-and that chords...how did you even come up with that?" Brett threw up his hands in frustration.

Bach in the portrait nodded down at Brett.

"...You do know that particular portrait can't talk, right?" Eddy muttered, leaning on a shelf.

Brett snapped his head up, his face flushing bright red.

"Uh-Eddy-!"

"So you like Bach?" Eddy asked, chuckling.

"I used to study violin before Hogwarts. Bach has always been one of my favorites...but Mendelssohn is also cool," Brett smiled shyly up at the portrait.

"Mendelssohn...sounds interesting," Eddy took a mental note to check out the recording tonight, thinking back to Brett's stunning performance at the hospital wing. "It's lunchtime though. Aren't you going down to eat - wait for a second," Eddy squinted his eyes in confusion when he spotted a blooming red streak across Brett's cheek. He knelt down beside Brett, taking the badger's face in his hand to examine the bruise in all angles.

"Bro, what the fuck happened?" Eddy asked, concerned.

"I might have fallen from my bed at night," Brett averted Eddy's piercing gaze, sweating.

"...don't try to lie your way out. Who did this to you?" Eddy's voice was tinged in anger as he gripped Brett's chin, forcing the hufflepuff to meet his eyes.

"You're just a tutor, not my mom."

"With a duty to help you adjust to Hogwarts, to be more specific. Do you really need me to force the answer out of your mouth with a spell?"

A silence followed. Brett's lips trembled as he finally blurted out the truth.

"Some dudes in Slytherin. They were saying something about mudblood."

Eddy's eyes widened at the offensive word.

"Do you know their name? Tell me how they looked and-"

"I'm alright! I'm actually glad that they picked on me, suddenly out of the blue. If I were prepared, they would have been dead meat," Brett brushed away Eddy's hand carelessly.

"And how on earth were you planning to make them into dead meat?" Eddy huffed.

"I know some taekwondo. I'm secretly a killing machine and I was only trying to control my power at that moment."

"I'm not convinced, badgerpuff."

"Well, you better watch out because I will kungpow the chicken out of those bullies the next time we meet," Brett shrugged, taking a brown lunch bag out of his pocket.

"Looks like you won't meet them ever again if you are too scared to even go to the dining hall to eat," Eddy rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"No, I'm not s c a red. I just wanted to ... eat my lunch with Bach."