[1990 Pt. 10]

[October 15, 1990.]

The school year was going fabulously for Nathan. He had finished the seventh-year study material of Hogwarts during the summer holidays and had begun studying topics that only a master of the various branches of wand magic would try to learn.

And while his studies of magic had been going well, Nathan had also checked out the small boundary of aspen trees that had grown from the seeds he had planted the previous year. The enchantments of the place had been left untouched and Nathan had started immediately started to increase the number of anti-discernment charms that he had placed on the boundary.

He had also engraved the trees with the Thurisaz rune that denoted protection, Thor and giants. Nathan had obviously focused on the protective aspect of the rune. The effects were immediate as the small diamond wardstone informed Nathan how the various enchantments that were bound to the boundary snapped into a single far more powerful shield that resisted any kind of attempts at discernment and stopped any magic from inside the boundary from moving out and vice versa.

All this had taken Nathan the better part of the month after returning for the year and Nathan had been increasing the anti-detection wards over the past month for the sole purpose of testing a few ancient spells that he had shortlisted from the bunch Nathan had wanted to master. It also allowed Nathan to test out his new sword.

Deciding it would be a good day to begin testing the protections today, Nathan moved with vigour towards his created safe haven after the class ended. Nathan had actually started skipping the stairs of the moving staircase in his excitement.

All those plans were, however, dashed when he found himself faced with a panting Orion who looked like he had run from the black lake to the top of the Astronomy tower without stopping. Orion took in a short gasp of air before he said, "Someone beat Alan up-"

That was all Nathan needed to hear before he said, "Let's go," and turned around to trace back the path he had just covered to take one of the shortcuts that he had found thanks to the Marauder's map.

As they were walking back quickly, Nathan asked Orion what had actually happened and Orion said, "After Herbology ended with Sprout and you went for your walk. We decided to head back to the common room, but Alan decided to take a small detour as he felt he needed to use the bathroom. Next thing we know, he is coming into the dorm room, and has a badly healed cut on his lips and finger marks on the cheek. Jacob said that there was a small tear in his robes too. I didn't see it."

"Told you who did it?"

"No. Acted like he was sleeping when we asked him what happened," Orion's face was red from exertion, but, he still kept pace with Nathan as they turned towards the final staircase towards the basement and asked, "Should I go tell Professor Sprout? She must be still around the greenhouses."

Nathan thought for a second before he shook his head and said, "No. It will be a case of 'he said, she said'- no I will handle this."

Open fights were uncommon in Hogwarts and often led to both parties getting punished. Within the school, fights once they had broken out were solved by humiliating pranks being played upon opposing parties or by insulting each other in the halls. That was how most of the school children dealt with conflict. It was very unusual if the interested parties had started beating the smack out of each other even without going for their wands.

The question was- Who had Alan fought with? And why was his beatdown so bad?

How did Nathan know that Alan had probably been humiliated by whoever had beat him up? Nathan knew because Alan was the type to shit-talk people after a fight rather than moping so badly.

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Nathan entered the dorms and immediately noticed Alan's prone form on the bed. He looked at Jacob who was giving the prone Alan an annoyed look and decided to speak up.

"Jacob? Orion needs your help in moving one of the tables."

Jacob turned to Nathan with a puzzled look but seeing the meaningful look on Nathan's face the boy caught onto his meaning and left even as he replied, "O-of course, mate."

Nathan stood there as he thought for a minute about how he would deal with Alan.

"I know you are awake." There was no response. Not that Nathan had expected that he would be getting any.

Nathan internally sighed before saying, "Orion and Jacob told me you were hurt. I need to see if you have healed the injury properly."

This time Nathan could see Alan's left leg twitch and deciding to seize the opportunity he said, "Look mate, I am just worried and want to know if you are okay, help a mate out will you?"

That was not the best thing to say when he looked at it in hindsight. Nathan heard a sniffle from Alan and internally started panicking as he moved towards the bed.

'Shit,' Alan was not just crying. The kid was sobbing as he took in small gasps of air.

"Waynewood, who did you fight mate?" Nathan's soft question was answered by more crying and Nathan could not help but feel a little guilty at making the lad have a full-on breakdown.

Deciding that despite his experience, he was not the person to deal with a crying child, Nathan just sat there slowly rubbing his young friend's back as he sobbed.

Nathan was not sure how long he sat there rubbing Alan's back before he calmed down but it was a long while.

After he settled down, Alan murmured something that Nathan was unable to properly hear.

"Huh?" was Nathan's confused response to the small murmur.

"The boy I fought with. He was a Weasley. A brother of the twins and William Weasley. Don't know his name."

Nathan, while surprised that the beating had come from a Weasley and one of the older ones, asked, "The one who plays Quidditch or the Prefect?"

Alan shifted to a sitting motion quickly and said, "The Quidditch bastard."

Nathan nodded as his mind ran at a furious pace before he asked, "Why did you fight?"

Alan had a thousand-yard-stare as he looked behind Nathan, and said in a detached tone, "He asked Tonks out."

"Ah," Nathan hardened his heart hoping Alan wouldn't take his young heart being broken too badly before he slowly said, "Mate, I am so sorry, but you need to let Tonks go. Part of loving someone is all about letting them be happy."

Even as he said the words, Nathan could feel his very soul twisting at the cringe he felt due to that statement. These things only sounded nice in movies. Though as Nathan overcame his embarrassment, he looked at Alan to see his reaction.

Alan was looking at him with a slightly confused look before his eyes widened and Nathan saw understanding dawn on his friend's face. Nathan prepared himself for another crying session, but instead of shouting or crying, Alan's voice sounded in an exasperated tone, "Mate, Tonks isn't going out with that wanker. She rejected him, quite brutally in fact."

Nathan blinked and said, "Then why the hell did you fight him?"

"I mean I couldn't just let him insult Tonks in the washroom even if he had been viciously shot down, could I?"

Nathan sighed. This is what had stopped him from testing his new super awesome light sword.

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A|N:

Hope you all like the chapter. I have recently noticed that I have been focusing too much on the magic development and not enough on character interactions, hence this sub-plot that will allow me to sort out the relationships between the houses and why when Harry entered Hogwarts there were not many interactions between the houses themselves excluding Slytherin.