35 [1990 Pt. 12]

[October 16, 1990.]

It was the morning of the day after the fight between Alan and Charlie that Nathan found himself walking towards the great hall for breakfast.

He had decided to head to the ROR for one of its darker books and after taking the book from the room, Nathan started walking down the seventh floor back to the ground floor so that he could fill his stomach with some food before the classes started.

When he entered through the massive wooden door of the great hall, he immediately noticed the tense atmosphere between the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. Nathan could see that a lot of the older girls from the Gryffindors and a lot of the boys from the Hufflepuffs seemed to be glaring at the other side.

'Why are people such idiots?!'-- Nathan inwardly screamed as his hope for reconciliation went down the drain thanks to the actions of two love-struck idiots.

He took in a deep breath to control his anger before he turned and walked towards his trio of friends. He could see them eating their breakfast in a childish, aggressive way that they seemed to think made them look intimidating.

He took a seat beside Jacob before asking Alan in a neutral voice, "So, everybody knows about Weasley and you?"

Alan stopped giving Weasley glares to look at Nathan and said, "Yeah. I went to the Quidditch team and the prefect. They were happy to help with Weasley."

Nathan nodded before he started eating too. It would be social suicide for Nathan if he tried stopping the idiots from fighting each other. Emotions and logic often did not mix well.

Nathan ate in silence even as he saw a few of the Hufflepuffs making subtle rude gestures at the Gryffindors who were answering in kind. He could even see Cedric viciously grinning at one of the Gryffindor fourth years.

'Was this the reason that the houses were so isolated from each other during canon.'-- Once again, Nathan was reminded that his foreknowledge, as useful as it was for him, was also very limited in depth and only gave him a superficial insight into the future which would probably never actually occur thanks to the butterfly effect.

He internally sighed before a stray thought that was terrifying entered his mind: What if my foreknowledge doesn't actually match up with the timeline?

Nathan shuddered at the idea before he quickly calmed himself, reminding himself that he had cross-referenced his knowledge with public records and newspapers. Nathan had also acknowledged long ago that he might have to intervene in the future, disrupting events to prevent catastrophic problems, and that in doing so would expose himself to risks of being in unknown waters.

His primary task in the coming years was to manage the transition from relying on extraversal knowledge to navigating events in such a manner that even without knowing the future his victory would be absolute.

Nathan shook his head. The game was only just beginning and he had a vast advantage before the fighting actually began, and it would be pretty stupid of him if he squandered the advantage of four years that he still had.

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Nathan and his fellow Hufflepuffs had attended their classes even as each of them nervously waited for them to get over so that they could rush to the Astronomy Tower courtyard.

Some of the professors had given them odd looks but had shrugged before they focused on their classes.

As soon as the classes ended, the normally silent courtyard in front of the astronomy tower within Hogwarts Castle suddenly found itself the host of at least four dozen hormonal teenage wizards.

On the base of the tower, Nathan could see Charlie Weasley talking to Oliver Wood. The two Gryffindors were surrounded by at least twenty other wizards in robes. Nathan noted that Gryffindors had wrapped bright golden bands around their arms.

'Probably to not hex a friend.'

The Hufflepuff side was not faring any worse as they too had at least two dozen students looking at the Gryffindors with venomous glares. Nathan shivered lightly as he imagined the two groups going at each other's throats in the courtyard. The results would be very painful for both sides.

Though imagining the exchange of forty spells after the fight began was also quite exciting. The groups slowly marched towards each other with deliberate and tense movements. Both sides looked like they expected the other to forego the talking in favour of hexing.

They stopped walking when the distance between the two parties was only two meters before Charlie Weasley looked at Nathan and said, "You sent my brother a message to talk. Here I am."

Nathan nodded before saying, "Here you are. I wanted to ask why you beat him up and will you be willing to apologize to him if you are in the wrong?"

The lions surrounding Charlie scoffed and Charlie gave a wry smile before he said, "Sorry, can't do that. Was badmouthing Tonks not the most chivalrous thing to do? Definitely. But you need to understand that I did so within the confines of the men's restroom after getting rejected by her. I would think that most of us who have faced rejection can relate to why I was not in the most charitable of moods at that time. He," Charlie pointed at Alan and said, "attacked me unprovoked and I defended myself. I even let him off easy, were he my age, I can assure you, the beating wouldn't have been half as light."

Nathan's face was neutral as the redhead gave his reasoning. Alan, who was standing to his side, snarled but was stopped from speaking by Philip who looked at Charlie and asked, "We know that Alan was the one to start the fight. The question is why? What did you call Tonks that it would become such a problem for my housemate Charlie?"

Philip was the boy's prefect for Hufflepuff and was normally a cheerful person but the coldness in his tone was clear to anybody who knew him.

Charlie's smile dimmed and he looked a little ashamed before he said, "I called her something that I am deeply sorry about."

Nathan was a little surprised by the admission, while Philips gave Charlie a small nod of acknowledgement before saying, "What you called her was not something I will repeat in polite company, but know that the only reason that Tonks and the other girls aren't here trying to hex your arse to Azkaban is because I don't want this to turn into a fight. I don't think the head boy wants that either."

Ben, the head boy who had taken over after Bill Weasley, smirked before he said, "No, I do not. The question is how do we settle the matter?"

Philip looked thoughtful before he said, "A gauntlet?"

The head boy quirked an eyebrow before he said, "A gauntlet."

Philip nodded before he looked at Weasley and said, "8 o'clock, tomorrow. You will be the Prime for an eight-player gauntlet."

"Who will be the Prime from you Hufflepuffs?" Charlie's jaw was clenched as he asked the question.

"Jones."

Weasley nodded with a small frown before turning and leaving. The Gryffindors also dispersed quickly even as they whispered among themselves. Alan waited until they all left before he turned to Nathan and asked, "What's a gauntlet?"

Philip answered before Nathan, "It is a type of game."

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A|N:

Give the fix some powerstones so that more people read it and I get more comments and replies to motivate me.

If you do like the fic, join Pa-atreon where I go by the same username.