"GRYFFINDOR!"
Blake looked around to his friends triumphantly for a few moments, as if saying 'I told you so' to them, before turning back to Connor, who was currently being welcomed to Gryffindor by the Golden Trio and the Weasley twins. Blake had a lot of respect for the Weasley twins - they were funny, creative with their pranks and intelligent. By far my favourite Weasleys, he thought.
The Sorting continued, and Blake's mind returned to Charlotte. He surmised that the best course of action for now would be to let Tracey speak to her and have Greengrass assess the situation, and then go from there. I need to know how much has happened, and what's happened.
"Ginny Weasley!"
Blake barely bothered to pay attention to this Sorting, given its obvious outcome.
"Gryffindor!"
And with Ginny's name, the Sorting ended and the feast began. Blake watched Charlotte out of the corner of his eye. She was doing a decent job of hiding it, but Blake could see it - she was wolfing down as much food as she could without being obvious. She's not eaten this much in a while, has she?
Malfoy, meanwhile, was seeming to have a grand time, whispering with sardonic glee with his cronies while looking at Charlotte. Blake's hand twitched as it moved towards his wand, but he stopped himself. If Charlotte's mum is the problem, me intervening here is not going to help at all, it's only going to make things worse.
"Oi, Rosier! Mummy finally had enough of her only daughter being a disgusting little blood traitor?"
Tracey hurled insults at Malfoy, while Blake and Zabini seethed in silence, both of them knowing any intervention would make Charlotte's situation worse.
There was one person, however, that could help.
Greengrass - uninvolved, aloof, neutral Greengrass - stepped forward.
"Draco, I think that's enough," she said icily.
For a second, Blake saw surprise in the boy's eyes, before he reverted back to snarling like an animal.
"I'm just reminding Rosier of her mistakes, Daphne. It'd be a shame for her - or anyone else - to make the same blood traitorous mistakes twice, after all."
Malfoy's smirk grew as he spoke, and by now, a small crowd had gathered - mostly Slytherins, but a fair few from the other houses. The threat was obvious - he was calling Greengrass a blood traitor too.
"It would do you well to watch your tone, Draco. Many would far rather associate with muggleborns than purebloods, especially if those purebloods lost a 3 versus 1, dishonourable duel to a muggleborn with less than a day of experience. I'm sure your father, being the intelligent man that he is, would agree."
Malfoy's face paled slightly as the crowd ooh'd and aww'd at her provocation.
"That - that was lucky."
"Is that so? Then why don't you prove it?" Greengrass replied, as if mildly interested. "Duel Renshaw."
"I - Fine! At midnight-"
"No," Greengrass's voice smoothly interrupted. "Were you not the one who told Potter you wanted a duel at midnight last year, only to never show up in order to get him into trouble?"
The crowd murmured their dissent towards Malfoy, who paled even further.
"I wonder what your mother would think upon hearing that, Draco."
Damn, she's rinsing him, Blake thought, surprised that Greengrass was speaking so much. But if he got the opportunity to absolutely destroy Malfoy again, he wouldn't complain.
"Professor Lockhart is supposedly a duelling expert. He'd make for an excellent referee, don't you think, Draco?"
"I- I suppose so."
"Excellent," Greengrass said. "Do you have any objections, Renshaw?"
"Not in the slightest," Blake smirked.
"Wonderful, I'll ask Professor Lockhart in our first lesson. Who's your second, Draco?"
What the hell is a second? Blake thought. Sh*t, do I need one too?
The pureblood boy seemed stunned for a moment, questioning how and why this was even happening in the first place.
"C- Goyle," he finally said. It's probably like a teammate or a back up.
"And yours, Renshaw?" she asked, looking at him pointedly.
"I am," Zabini said monotonously, idly inspecting his wand.
"Renshaw?" Greengrass asked.
"He is," Blake confirmed, slightly surprised Zabini volunteered himself.
"Then it's settled. If all goes well, the duel will happen this Friday, just before dinner. Is that acceptable?"
"Yes," Blake immediately responded, staring Malfoy done. The weight of what he'd just signed up for only just seemed to weigh down on the pureblooded brat.
"I- But-"
"Don't tell me you're backing out now, Malfoy," Tracey jeered. "Isn't Blake just a muggleborn?"
"I said yes!" Malfoy snarled.
"Wonderful. I have some work to do," Greengrass said, striding forward. "I'll see you all later, I suppose."
With that, the girl casually walked away, towards the dungeons, as all eyes followed her. Blake looked around at the crowd in glee - all of them seemed invested, regardless of house. Amongst them were Harry, Hermione, the Weasleys and - Connor? Oh for f*ck's sake, Blake thought, as his brother ran up to him.
Blake sighed.
"Connor-"
"She's so cool!" Connor beamed. "She turned Malfoy into her b*tch in front of the whole school!"
"Connor!" Blake admonished. "Mind your language!"
The boy rolled his eyes. "Okay, Blakey."
"Don't call me-"
"Anyway, I'm gonna watch your duel. You better knock him out!" Connor said excitedly, before running off with his new found friends.
Blake quickly found himself surrounded by students he'd rarely interacted with, if ever - Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors from not just his own year, telling him to 'beat the sod out of Malfoy', or 'teach that rat a lesson', or (Blake's personal favourite from the Weasley twins):
"Make him," Fred started.
"Your b*tch!" George finished.
Blake laughed with them, but to be honest - he didn't really like the attention. He wasn't worried about the stakes being higher - it was more that if people were talking about it, there was more of a chance of a teacher finding out and stopping the duel, and Blake really, really, really wanted the duel.
Harry, Hermione and Weasley didn't come up to him, but Harry and Weasley offered him a massive grin and thumbs up, while Hermione tutted disapprovingly. Blake just smiled back.
"Thanks for volunteering to be my second," Blake said to Zabini.
"You would've asked me anyway," he said dismissively.
"You could've said no."
"Don't be stupid. She's my friend too."
Blake sighed.
"Yeah. I suppose she is."
/
The next day, after the pair had recast their protection charms on their room and done the paper-in-door method and when breakfast rolled around, Blake and Zabini waited anxiously for Greengrass and Tracey to show.
"They're kind of late, right?" Blake muttered to Zabini.
"Charlotte's not here either," Zabini noted.
Just then, Greengrass and Tracey walked into the Great Hall, and the boys could instantly tell something was wrong. The girls sat down, and it was only then that Blake noticed that Tracey was crying quietly.
"What happened?" Blake asked Greengrass, as Zabini stared at Tracey's face, his expression unreadable.
"Charlotte doesn't want to speak to us," she said quietly. "She didn't tell us anything. The only thing she said was: 'Please don't talk to me ever again.' I think that speaks for itself though."
Blake's heart sank even further.
And logically speaking, she's right too. She literally has no other options - if she keeps talking to us, she keeps getting abused at home. She took a big enough risk just by talking to us in the first place, and paid the price for it. We can't ask her to do it again.
That morning, Charlotte didn't show up to breakfast, or any of the morning lessons, only choosing to show up for lunch and the lessons after.
We've had Charms and Transfiguration - the seating plans didn't change for them, and I doubt they will for the other classes. I can't get into the girls' dorms to talk to her, and I don't want to talk in front of people.That leaves only one option - one class that I might be able to talk to her in, Blake thought as he strode into the classroom that had given him so many problems last year.
Defence Against the Dark Arts.
As Professor Lockhart started his yap, Blake waited for the seating plan to appear. Why's this man already pissing me off? From the way he's talking, it doesn't even sound like he's been in a single fight in his life!
Finally, however, the soliloquy came to an end, and the seating plan appeared on the board, and he searched for his name.
Blake's heart soared.
ROSIER RENSHAW
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