30 CH30 - Humble Pie

The Hogwarts Express pulled into the station with a long hoot of its whistle. The train screeched to a halt, and smoke filled the platform, obscuring the view. Edmund heard, more than saw, the compartment doors opening as an onslaught of tired teenagers poured out.

The once-quiet area became ear-splittingly loud in an instant. Over the cacophonous thunder, Edmund could barely pick out the whining of hungry students eager for the welcoming feast to begin.

In the end, it was not he who found his friends, but they who found him. As Edmund twisted and turned in search, a heavy weight leapt onto his back.

*Oof,* Edmund grunted as he crouched to regain his balance. He leaned forward instinctively before craning his head around to see who it was. There was really no need, though.

"WHOOO! This is my man right here! Edmund Cole! Genius, good-looking, roguish heartthrob! Come get him, ladies! He's still single, and a virgin to boot! Somebody here must be willing to cure him of that, huh?!" Jeremy screamed into his ears, earning a smattering of chuckles from the watching crowd.

"Best! Christmas gift! EVER!" Jeremy proclaimed, before delving into a rant about the "unbeatable" Puddlemere United.

As Edmund listened amusedly to Jeremy with a small blush on his face, they were joined by Ben and Cecilia as well. The duo snorted at the situation before all four began making their way to the thestral carriages.

When Jeremy finally shut up to catch his breath, Ben took his place at Edmund's side. Silently, he hugged him from the side, patting him on the back repeatedly.

"It was a thoughtful gift, you know? Mum and dad are both descended from farmers' families, going back lord knows how many generations. Being told your son has magic and seeing it are two completely different things. We made a day of it, sneaking out to the lake early one morning to test out the Gillyweed. They were so happy they must have filled up half an album with pictures of me," he chuckled before scratching his head. "Probably should've kept better track of the supply you gave me, though. My sister got into it, and she swallowed one of the portions before I could stop her. We suspected she was magical 'cause of the outbursts during her tantrums, but her growing gills pretty much confirmed it."

Edmund grunted dismissively, waving off Ben's thanks.

"I'm glad you got some good use out of it. I thought you'd have wanted to strangle me. Now that your sister knows she's a witch, she's gonna be bugging you a lot more for things," he pointed out.

Ben grimaced in realization."Shit."

Jeremy began teasing Ben, and the two quickly got into a spirited argument.

Cecilia took the chance to walk with him, shoving him playfully when Edmund tried to put his arm around her shoulder. She harrumphed snootily, barely keeping a grin off her face.

"So unoriginal. You basically stole my idea for you and just gifted it back to me. Except, of course, it looked like some cheap knockoff of mine," she complained in a ridiculing tone.

"Not everyone has money to blow like you, rich bitch," Edmund mocked.

Her face became warmer, more genuine at that.

"It was nice," Cecilia admitted. "Though I'm beginning to suspect you've hired a stalker to follow me with the number of pictures you managed to come up with."

"Besides," she added before he could retort, "it still doesn't make you any less of a doofus. A photo frame? Really? You know I had to display that somewhere, right?"

"And?" Edmund asked, entertaining her.

"And, it means that when I displayed it, the house elves saw. And when they saw, they cooed over 'how cute' I looked. And when that happened, the rest of my family saw too," she grumbled.

"Well? What did they think?" Edmund queried lowly as he bit back his guffaws.

Cecilia blushed deeply, remaining silent.

"Well, maybe if you actually sent back pictures when they asked you to, they wouldn't pry so much. Ah, the shy anti-social Cecilia strikes again!" he ribbed.

Cecilia reached out to elbow him in the stomach, but Edmund deftly leaned out of the way. She overextended, not expecting her attack to meet air. As she toppled over, she looked at Edmund in betrayal, who didn't even attempt to reach out and catch her.

*SPLAT*

She fell into a muddy puddle, laying there unmoving as if hoping the earth would swallow her whole.

Only a minute later, the three guys hollered and whooped as they ran from Cecilia, who had begun chasing them indignantly upon hearing their laughter.

Ben and Jeremy split up from Edmund as they reached the carriages, and Cecilia decided to follow the majority.

Panting, Edmund leaned on the side of a tree as he caught his breath, cheering on his dorm mates all the while. His eyes caught sight of the approaching Luna, who was smiling gently. She hugged him tenderly, before standing on her tip toes to whisper in his right ear.

"Thank you. It was the most thoughtful gift anyone's gotten for me in a long time," she murmured before her tone became more mischievous. "But... maybe you should have asked what a cork necklace meant before you gifted me one. The one I usually wear belonged to my mother, given to her by my dad when he declared his intention to court her."

"So... my gift?" Edmund asked with a wince.

"That's right," Luna glared at him. "My daddy is under the impression that his baby girl has been asked on a date."

Edmund gulped as Luna smiled evilly.

"That's alright, though. I know you meant well. But I do need to get my anger out of my system somehow," she innocently added.

A sharp poking sensation stabbed Edmund's back, and he realized it was Luna's wand. He looked dead in her eyes as she muttered, "Petrificus Totalus."

Luna stepped back from him with a grin.

"Hey, Cecilia!" Luna waved over the girl who was still chasing Ben and Jeremy determinedly. "Over here!"

As Cecilia ran over to embrace the still-frozen Edmund, he had only one thought running through his mind.

'Well played, Luna.'

*-*-*-*

- (Scene Break) -

*-*-*-*

Edmund's first occlumency lesson with Elspeth after the new year began as they always did: with a transfer of the memories of all their past sessions. The process tended to make the ever-suspicious Elspeth less jumpy, but more bitter about her circumstances.

She withdrew from his mind with a sharp inhale, rapidly assimilating the knowledge she had gained.

"Well, I suppose that explains why I was so subconsciously eager to learn..." she trailed off. "Let's test it then."

Elspeth trained her wand in Edmund's face, signalling the beginning of her attempts to penetrate his mind.

"Legilimens," she barked.

Edmund's defences held better than they had ever done in the past. His new mental enhancements allowed him to focus better, responding to her adjustments more rapidly and precisely. And yet, his prowess did not seem to faze Elspeth in the slightest. In fact, her face only morphed from its usual blankness into a slight upturn as time went on.

With a start, Edmund realized that while he was still struggling with her attacks, she had already gotten inside. Turning his head aside forcefully, he broke the connection, sweat beading on his temple.

"How?" he questioned.

"You have gotten better at both subtle and forceful attempts of legilimency. But you have lost sight of what the original intention behind these lessons was. I do not want you to simply memorize my tactics and create counters to them. I want you to learn how to beat your opponent by judging what they might be capable of doing," Elspeth scolded him. "You have gotten so used to a single probe, that you have utterly discounted the possibility of attacks from multiple angles. I distracted you by spending the majority of my concentration on my central attack, while my ambush from the periphery crept in without any resistance."

"But that..." he recognized slowly, his pitch rising with disbelief. "Something like that requires splitting of the consciousness."

She blinked in his direction rapidly before clearing her throat.

"I am surprised you know of the term at all," she said. "I will admit it is advanced magic, but—"

"Advanced?" Edmund interrupted with a shout before lowering his voice. "Learning that kind of magic is practically suicidal!"

"But!" she reiterated irritatedly, "powerful legilimencers will be well versed in it. I am an amateur for now, but I will introduce you to it as best I can."

"Thank you," Edmund said while giving her a bow from his sitting position.

'If only I could properly thank her somehow,' he pondered before an invisible lightbulb went off in his head.

Giving Elspeth something physical to express his gratitude was difficult. When her memories were stripped at the end of the session, she would be left wondering where the item came from, increasing the chance of her realizing she had been obliviated.

'But this might work,' he excitedly thought.

Edmund retrieved the endless notebook he had dedicated to research from his satchel, flipping through it. After learning of conscious splitting from Marvolo, he had scoured the library in the Room of Requirement for any mention of it. He had discovered much, however, the magic was far too difficult for his current skill level.

But for Elspeth...

"Here," he declared, passing his notes over to the older Hufflepuff.

She looked at him suspiciously, before her eyes went up to her hairline as she read through what he had jotted down.

"I've turned the Restricted Section upside down in the past couple of months looking for this information, and you just happen to have it. How?" she demanded.

"I can't tell you," Edmund shrugged, before raising his hands to placate her.

"Listen. Write down what you want from this. When I obliviate you at the end, I'll throw in a Confundus, so you think you found the information in a book that got removed from the library after you read it," he offered.

She looked at him again, her eyes gaining newfound appreciation.

"You're not so bad," Elspeth admitted. "I'm entirely at your mercy, and you haven't done anything to abuse that power till now. If anything, you've helped me improve my own skills. It's impressive willpower you've got there."

"Oh, come on! I'm only eleven, you know," he huffed, understanding what she was implying.

"Exactly. You're eleven. At your age, boys spend their entire nights wanking away with their curtains closed," she scoffed condescendingly.

Edmund choked on his spit, spluttering out a laugh.

"Maybe," he smiled.

"Oh, are you telling me you don't?" Elspeth smirked.

Edmund only shook his head with a sigh and chuckled.

"The more time that goes on, the more inclined I feel just to sign a contract of secrecy with you and be done with it," she thought out loud.

"Really?" Edmund asked incredulously. "I wouldn't have guessed that, coming from you. What if the memories I just showed you were fakes, and I've just been lying to you all along?"

Elspeth snorted.

"Kid. Forging memories is more my forte than yours. I know all the hints and tricks to look out for in faked memories. You might be multitalented, and that's incredible. But the mind arts are practically my sole devotion. You're not going to be able to fool me," she bragged.

"Well then," Edmund said, "I'll just have to keep trying."

*Tchh*

"Ah, whatever. No point trying to convince you. A little slice of humble pie will do you good," Elspeth decided with a snigger.