Pride and Prejudice [Percival]

[Kyle Winters]

Saturday, 3 December 2005
4:00pm
The corridors were fairly quiet when Kyle returned to Hogwarts Castle after his solo Quidditch training. He guessed that most of the students were either studying in the library, or hanging out in the Common Rooms. As he strode down the hallway past a stairwell, he thought he heard a noise of some sort upstairs. Initially he didn’t think too much about it, but a voice floated down from above: “He needs to be taught some manners.”

That didn’t sound good at all. Ascending the stairs as quietly as he could, he craned his neck to see what was going on.

“Yes indeed,” a second student said. Like the owner of the first voice, this person sounded pretty young.

“I–I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!” A third voice rang out, terrified and trembling. Kyle recognised it almost immediately: this was one of the First-Years whom he had shared a cabin with on the Hogwarts Express. Abandoning stealth in favour of speed, he raced up the stairs and found the poor Muggle-born boy on the ground, cornered by three other slightly older students with their wands drawn. The colour of their robes indicated that all of them were Gryffindors – even the quavering boy on the ground.

Kyle didn’t know what had caused this confrontation, but what he did know was that he had to intervene regardless of what had happened. “Hey!” he yelled, and the trio turned around, startled by the sudden and unexpected intrusion. Judging from their looks they were probably Third-Years, and the hostility in their eyes that contrasted strongly against their young faces was quite shocking to witness. “Back off, all of you!” he warned as he instinctively interposed himself between the First-Year and the three bullies and drew his own wand.

“Think we can take him on?” The last of the trio whispered to his mates nervously. “He’s older, but there’s three of us.”

“Let’s do it,” the others agreed. As one they pointed their wands at Kyle, but the older student was way faster. “InTEGumentum!” Kyle recited, and a glowing shield appeared on his left hand, blocking and nullifying the trio’s opening salvo. “Is that all you’ve got?” he scoffed, before retaliating with a spell of his own. “Aguamenti!” The jet of water struck the leader of the trio in the face, and the boy flinched, gasping and sputtering in shock. His two mates were next, and within moments the bullies were all soaked to the bone. “Still game?” Kyle taunted as he continued to drench the trio to humiliate them further. “Gryffindor students, eh? I’ll make sure Professor Murphy hears of this.”

Right at this moment, another person emerged from the stairwell, presumably drawn here by the commotion. Catching sight of the newcomer, he hastily cancelled his Water-Making Spell, but he didn’t know if he had been quick enough to spare the newcomer from an impromptu shower.