Bullies and A letter

Chapter 14 –

Nathan and his friends were preparing to head back home, for their Christmas holidays. Jeremy was taking the flight the very next day, after getting off from the Hogwarts Express to Italy, for vacation, and Carlisle's family had decided to visit Howard Stark's Stark Expo being held in Los Angeles, they were taking Mary-Anne and her family along with them, so Nathan had plenty of time to himself. He had decided to use his time productively. He was going to continue training his magic back at the Abode. But apart from that, he was also planning on repurposing the abandoned witch's home into a laboratory where he could experiment with runes, potions, and alchemy.

Nathan also wanted to get in touch with a solicitor and lawyer, and as far his memory from the books went, Tonks's dad was one such magical solicitor. So, three days before they left, Nathan approached her after breakfast.

As soon as he walked toward her, he could see that she was expecting another prank from him, so he put his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. "I come in peace! I want to talk to you about getting in contact with a lawyer and solicitor."

"Just because you say that you come in peace, doesn't mean I am going to believe you. Why do you need a Solicitor anyway?"

"Oh, come on! I swear, scouts honor!" He smiled, forming the boy scouts' symbol with his hand, and continued "I just need to get in touch with a lawyer, and you and Charlie are the only people I know, that could point me in the right direction. I need a solicitor to maybe hopefully learn how one goes about starting a business here, and what laws are there in place for it." He explained.

"First off, you're not a boy scout, so come off it. And secondly, you can probably owl my dad, his name is Ted Tonks, he'll want to meet you though, what are you thinking of starting anyway?" She enquired.

"I was thinking of opening a newsletter eventually, I wanted to give people a better perspective of what is happening both here in Britain and in other communities around the Magical World." He added nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"That, could work, but why? Do you like Journalism or something? You do have the flair for over-dramatizing yourself, that's for sure, getting into mischief and finding problems, that you can do, so I suppose I can see it." Then she shrugged. "Well, whatever. As I said, talk to my dad, he'll be able to help. You can use my owl from the owlery, just call for Charcoal, when you go there, and she'll come to you, be careful of her talons."

"Ouch, you wound me Tonksie! I don't overdramatize myself" Nathan said, placing his hand on his heart, feigning hurt.

Tonks raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the gesture.

"Touché. Thank you, that helps a lot!" and with that Nathan rushed off to write a letter to Ted Tonks.

He never noticed that in all that talk, his nose had turned red, and his hair was replaced by a rainbow afro.

After finishing writing his letter, Nathan dispelled the illusion Tonks had layered on him, and headed off to the owlery. He enjoyed pranking people, and he let Tonks prank him most of the time, as it increased the laughter of those around him, at his expense. Due to his more direct connection to magic, most magic applied to him could easily be felt by him.

Just before entering the owlery, he was stopped by a snide soft voice.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in, boys. Where's your troupe of bunched-up mudbloods?"

Sighing to himself, Nathan prepared for the eventual confrontation. Cassius Warrington had been attempting to rile him and his friends on multiple occasions, mainly because he was jealous of being shown up in class, and while Nathan kept trying to ignore him, knowing that escalation was exactly what he wanted, he just wouldn't stop.

"Have you got nothing better to do than resort to name-calling, Warrington?" Nathan said as he turned around. He noticed that the boy was not alone, he was accompanied by two other students, Ismelda Murk, and Lucian Bole. This was the clique of friends that resorted to all kinds of derogatory and vicious activities from the first year in Slytherin.

There were bullies in all houses and all years. They were not just special to Slytherin, but the Slytherin students take the bullying to political matters like blood purity, and they are the ones that tend to be the most vicious of all of the rest. While most of the bullying is verbal in nature, there was a where a student had been left overnight, tied up in broom cupboard with her memories wiped over what happened and who their attackers were. That particular case happened during the most recent war. When Voldemort's activities were at a fever pitch. Such cases were rare and only happened when the perpetrators were brazened enough to carry out their crimes and not fear the consequences.

Now, though. After Voldemort's supposed demise, the people who believed in the pureblood ideology have simmered down and returned to schoolyard name-calling and verbal bullying.

"It is not name-calling if it is true, now is it?" Warrington scoffed, as his friends snickered.

"Warrington, is your brain so rotten that you can't figure out that all of us bleed red, and have the same magic running through us? Blood purity is a stupid ideology that you try to spout off when you see that hard-working people end up doing better than you. Now, leave and leave me be, I don't have time for your nonsense, go dance around in front of some Gryffindor" Nathan replied instantly.

"We're not going anywhere; we've been trying to get one of your group separated for quite some time and now we've finally got you." He said as all three of them pulled out their wands. "What do you say, Murk, Bole why don't we tie up his legs, I don't see his wand on him, he's easy pickings, and no one will believe his words either. What kind of wizard forgets his wand either way?"

It was true, Nathan had forgotten his stick, that he used as a fake wand, in his room. He'd been conjuring it constantly to hide his wandless capabilities throughout the day. But they didn't need to know that.

Nathan prepared for the incoming assault by raising his arms, as if to run, as Warrington chanted. "Flippendo!"

Nathan sidestepped the knockback jinx, and took steps toward Warrington, who again cast "Rictusempra".

Nathan again sidestepped the blueish spell, which he knew to be the tickling charm and was almost in attacking range of the shaking boy who was looking at his friends and shouting "What the hell are you two doing!? Get him!"

But before they could do anything, Nathan had snatched their wands and had knocked Warrington on the ground.

"I don't need a wand to take care of idiots like you Warrington, now leave. I will hand over the wands to you during Dinner."

And with that he turned and left, not sparing another glance at the cowering students. He wasn't worried about them snitching to Prof. Snape or anyone else, because even if they lied, their scruffy ruffed-up appearance would tell the truth, and they would be humiliated about getting beat up, by an unarmed person.

Nathan quickly climbed the stairs of the owlery and called "Charcoal!"

A large, black owl, with yellow eyes and sharp claws came down and tried landing on his shoulder. Nathan dodged the landing attempt, which caused her to land on the Owl perch beside him, and send a baleful glare his way.

Nathan ignored the glare from the unusual Owl and pulled out his letter "This is a letter from me to Tonks's father, would you carry it for me?" After a few seconds of staring in which Nathan was sure, the owl was scrutinizing his very soul, she nodded, and offered a claw to him. Tying the letter to the claw, he sent the owl on her way. Giving Edna a few treats for the missed opportunity, as an apology, Nathan returned to his common room.

oOOOOOOOOOo

"- so then I said, 'I don't need wands to take care of idiots like you Warrington' you guys should have seen his face. He was looking like he'd seen a dementor or something!" Nathan was regaling the story of him humiliating the bullies by the owlery to his friends.

It was the 21st of December, and Nathan and his friends, alongside Tonks and Charlie, were seated inside the compartment of the Hogwarts express, heading home for the Christmas Holidays, while Bill was performing his duties as head boy and Percy had decided to accompany Penelope Clearwater in a different compartment.

"I wish we had been there, seriously though, he's taking things too far, we can handle verbal insults, but casting spells on you and threatening to tie your legs up is, a pushing it." Carlisle pointed out.

"I know, but don't worry about it, I think he'll stay quiet for a while, now. Its not like he's great at magic or anything, plus all he'd cast was a knockback jinx and a tickling charm." Nathan reminded her.

"I suppose you're right. I just hope that's the end of it. What are you going to do during the holidays Nathan? You still haven't told us." Jeremy asked.

"Well, I was actually thinking of visiting Tonks's home, I wanted to visit a magical home and see what the differences are between a muggle and a magical home, and find out if electronic things work there, I've tested a few at Hogwarts, and they stop working as soon as they enter wards. I want to find out if that is only a thing for Hogwarts or all magical wards. I also think I will visit your home sometime, Charlie. It's in Ottery St. Catchpole right?" He asked to the redhead who was talking to Tonks.

"Yes, you can come there anytime, you can't miss the Burrow if you're there, especially if you're magical, though send an owl before you arrive, we'll set the wards to accept guests," Charlie advised him.

"Alright, I will send a letter through Edna, whenever I decide to visit, it will probably be after I visit Tonks's though, so I might just floo on over from there if that's alright with you." He asked.

"Why don't we just have a gathering after your meeting is done with Tonks's father, that way you can experience Floo travel, we can meet your mum and my mum will get to cook for a lot of people on the same day! What about on the Christmas Eve? You can even meet Fred, George, Ron, and my baby sister Ginny!" Charlie put forth the idea, in truth he wanted to spend time with Tonks Christmas and this was the perfect opportunity.

For Nathan, this was the perfect opportunity to hit two birds with one stone. He wanted to somehow gain access to Percy's rat. He couldn't stomach the idea of knowing that an innocent man was being incarcerated for crimes he didn't commit and having a solicitor and lawyer be present during his exposé would be the perfect way of getting him out and not having any scrutiny fall over him.

If all his plans fell perfectly an innocent man would be free, and an abused child will have a home where he is loved.

"Yeah, that's the perfect opportunity to celebrate Christmas, and have fun!" Tonks nodded in approval.

"So, it's set then, we will celebrate Christmas Eve at the Burrow, and Nathan can meet with Tonks's father on the morning of the day." Charlie affirmed.

They continued talking throughout the train ride back to Kings Cross, Nathan's mind slowly calculating the multiple opportunities that were approaching him and figuring out how it would be best to tackle them.

oOOOOOOOOOOo

Kings Cross Station was packed with travelers, consisting of people either waiting for family and friends to arrive, for the coming Christmas Celebration, or were waiting for the train to arrive so they could leave, to visit other countries or cities for their vacation plans. It was filled with people in a festive mood, the happiness and excitement that people had for the occasion were almost visible, like a magic of its own.

One such person standing at the station was Jolene Shephard. She was waiting for her son, Nathan to arrive back from Hogwarts for the Christmas celebrations. She had been delighted when she'd received his letter stating that he was going to be with her for the Christmas Celebration. He had asked her specifically that he wanted to celebrate this Christmas in London, and she didn't have the heart to deny him. That is why she had booked three days' reservations at The Ned, for them to stay.

She was waiting in front of the magical archway that Nathan had shown her previously when she had come to send him off. She was very much looking forward to seeing him again, and hopefully meet his new friends. She was pacing the platform between platforms nine and ten, waiting for him to arrive when she finally heard his voice.

"Mum!" turning to him, she noticed that Nathan had grown a few inches since last she'd seen him. He was wearing his winter leather jacket, and cargo pants, and he was carrying Edna's cage in his hands. She figured his trunk was inside his pockets.

Quickly making her way toward him, she wrapped him in a hug and kissed his cheek.

"Mum! Not now! Come, I'll take you to meet my friends." He said, embarrassed at her action, but he was inwardly pleased nonetheless. Jolene chuckled at his antics, as she was led by an excitable Nathan toward where his friends were meeting their parents.

"Slow down Nathan, I am not as fast as you are." She had to say, though her heart wasn't in it. At that moment, she could have run a marathon had he asked it of her.

He led her through the crowd toward the other side of Platform 10, where she could see three families going through similar emotions as they'd just had.

"Mum! These are Jeremy and his parents," he said, pointing towards the brown-eyed boy, standing beside what she'd assumed to be his parents. "That's Carlisle, she's in my house, and her parents, and that's Mary-Anne and her family. Everyone this is my mother!"

"Hello! It is nice to finally meet you"

And they introduced themselves to each other. Apparently, there were two more families that she was going to meet, as Nathan had made two more friends, older than himself, In the magical world, and they'd been invited to celebrate Christmas together. She was happy for him, for he was finally getting out of the house and making friends that he could socialize with.

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