New Magical School, New Wizard Bully

"Steven, just... stop, okay?" Kevin warned.

"Oh, 'Stop it, Steven! Or me and my boyfriend will cry'," Steven mimicked mockingly.

"Steven, just, shut up," professor Slughorn warned. I blushed so hard at what Steven called me. Kevin's boyfriend?

"Dick," Kevin muttered under his breath.

I held his hand and whispered, "It's okay. I'm used to it."

He gave me a smile, then looked at our hands. "Oh, gosh." I retracted my hands back while Kevin gave me a playful wink.

"Mr. Cowell-Reynolds- well, that's too long can I call you, 'Mr. Kenneth'?" I nodded, "Why are you all red?" professor Slughorn asked.

"N-Nothing sir," I replied, looking down to hide my blush.

"Let's do this by pair, shall we?"

Of course, like how the heavenly bodies plan everything, I got paired up with Kevin. We went to make the love potion and became the first ones to do so.

"What's our reward?" Kevin asked professor Slughorn. The man was checking our potion, shaking the bottle a bit.

"I won't see you next year," professor replied plainly, putting the bottle down and narrowed his eyes at my rather tall friend.

Tim dragged me to lunch, with Kevin trailing behind us. There, we saw Alexander and Michael.

"Heya," Alexander greeted.

I gave them a wave while Kevin gave them a fist bump. "Kenny, how's Hogwarts?" Michael asked while taking a bite of his turkey leg.

"Better than my past school," I replied honestly. And it was. Durmstrang is dark, and most of the people are homophobic, while Hogwarts is like a place to be!

"Well, there's a lot that Hogwarts can offer," Alexander said, Michael agreed and tried to talk but he almost choked on his food.

"Tim, what's your first class this afternoon?" Kevin asked.

"I have Divination while Kenny has Herbology," Tim replied, wiping his lips with the napkin as he had just finished eating.

"Cool," Alexander said. I gave him a questioning glance, "Oh, I have Herbology too."

"Oh," I said with a smile.

After we ate our lunch, I said goodbye to the gang and went with Alexander. "I'm so excited for Herbology! I have a crush on one of our classmates," Alexander cheered.

We got to the garden where professor Longbottom was standing in front of clay vases. A familiar spikey sort of leaves sat on top of the vases.

"Welcome everyone, today we are going to learn about gingersnouts or-"

"Spiked-snouted gingers," a boy with dark red hair and shiny glasses finished. He seems to realize what he did and looked down, blush covered his lightly-freckled face.

"That is correct! Gingersnsouts are used to treat rashes you get from a few types of dragons…"

"There he is," Alexander said.

"Uh, what do you mean?" I asked him, not listening to what the teacher is saying.

"The guy I like. Antony Scott," he replied.

"Alexander, b-but he's a-"

Alexander cut me off, "A boy. I know," he looked at me and gave me a wink. "I'm bi."

"Gay in denial, rather," Anna butt in.

"Anna, hi," I greeted. She narrowed her eyes at us.

"Hello," Anna scoffed. "You left me at the Great Hall. Timmy must've forgotten. We have the same class," she said while grabbing something from her bag.

"What's that?" I ask her. She showed me a pair of leather gloves.

"Gingersnouts aren't called 'spiked-snouted' if they're not spiked," she mocked and threw me the gloves. I gave her a questioning look as to which she answered, "I have my own. Kevin said you wouldn't, so he lent you his."

I blushed at the mention of Kevin's name. Sure, he's just a friend who has my back but he sure is sweet. I wonder how am I gonna repay him? And all of them.

"Kenny, come on," Alexander snapped me from my thoughts.

The gingersnouts, as I still remember. were eerily creepy. They look like large gingers, but they have a dog-like snout that has sharp teeth, somewhat like a shark's teeth.

"Now, children, to collect the essence from the gingersnout, you need to cover the muzzle with your non-dominant hand and use your dominant hand to pull the lightest colored branch outside of the plant. Use the branch to pull the plant out of the pot, it is the less thorny. When the plant is out, place it on the tray, still covering the snout, and collect the light purple roots," professor Longbottom instructed. "Now this might be very tricky, and I don't expect any of you to get it the first ti-"

"Done, sir!" I chimed.

Everyone was shocked at the sight. I was holding the gingersnout at the branch but how professor Longbottom instructed, I was tickling its chin-ish area instead of covering its mouth. The light purple roots of the plant were ready to be cut.

Everyone was staring at me awkwardly. Even professor Longbottom was speechless.

"I had a lot of experiences with all sorts of plants. Poppa always said not to cover their mouth as it is foul, you can tickle their chin. They won't bite you that way," I said. Everyone's jaw dropped. "Oh, my poppa is also a Herbologist."