Getting Cornered

Koni made it a point to remain ahead of Hadrian as she walked him around the school. She even made sure to spend as little time as possible when going to a new area. Unlucky for her, Hadrian's Eidetic Memory had served its usefulness once more! He was able to memorize the routes she took to get to specific areas of the school.

After an hour of wandering around the school, Koni lead Hadrian to the first-year sleeping area. It was a long corridor with many doors that laid side-by-side.

Koni watched Hadrian's unimpressed expression as she opened the door to his room, "What? It isn't good enough for Mr.Champion?".

Hadrian glanced to look at her, "I just expected something...more."

"You have to transfigure the room yourself or get someone else to do it for you...or is that too hard for Mr. Champion?", she said mockingly.

Hadrian sighed, before turning towards Koni and looking at her square in the eyes, "Look, I'm new to this school, and you're supposed to be my guide - so can you put aside your jealousy and treat me like a friend. Like you did before I got these...", Hadrian said as he flashed his new Focus Tattoos.

"J-jealous!...", Koni scoffed unconvincingly, "Who would be jealous of y-you!".

Hadrian kept his gaze on Koni, who's feet began to shuffle under his scrutinization.

After a while, Koni sighed whilst looking away from Hadrian, "Fine. I apologize. I just get too competitive sometimes... I thought I was talented for my age, but then you come along and have better control than I do. It's just annoying, alright."

Hadrian studied her face for a few seconds, trying to discern whether it was a genuine apology for the way she'd been acting.

"I accept your apology. Goodnight, Koni.", He said as he entered his room and closed the door, leaving Koni standing outside.

Hadrian looked around the rest of his 'room'. It was the size of a small shed, with space for a bed, a desk, and a bathroom. The only gleaming quality was the view from the window beside the bed.

The giant, silver, shining moon accompanied by scattered stars and wispy clouds made up for the lackluster decor of the room.

Hadrian dug inside his pocket and retrieved the trunk his grandmother had shrunk for him, before throwing it on the floor.

He made a stabbing motion with his wand which caused it to grow to its original size. The first thing Hadrian retrieved was his books on the specialized courses Uagadou offered. He would brush up on his core subjects sometime in the future; he'd already learned a lot of what most schools offered in their required subjects at Aunriton. Even more so than the other students that had attended.

Not all of the students that attended Aunriton left with a perfect grasp on the core subjects, not as Hadrian did. His scores had been the best since Aunriton's establishment.

Unfortunately, most of the students at Aunriton were children that came from rich and aristocratic families. The reason for that was because there was almost no way for a muggle-born to know about magic and the wizarding world before they receive their letter of enrollment towards the school that's closest to their area. Purebloods tend to confine their children within their homes and teach them with hired tutors; it was most likely to prevent them from interacting with half-blooded wizards that may attend schools such as Aunriton.

Those that did go to a school like Aunriton, did not try very hard - which was expected as they were young!

Hadrian jumped on his plain, single bed, lying on the mattress as he read his book on transfiguration. Quite conveniently, the book had a chapter on transfiguring the space of an object or room.

Hadrian looked around the room impassively, 'I could use the size rune cluster before transfiguring the room...that would increase the size-potential of the room.', he mused, before returning to his book.

The next day had progressed quite smoothly. Koni had decided to relinquish her jealous attitude and begun to act in the friendly manner she possessed when she introduced herself to Hadrian.

Hadrian had sat through two of the core subjects already, Charms and Potions.

Charms seemed normal, with the only difference being the lack of wands that Hadrian had grown accustomed to during his time at Aunriton. They were learning a few charms that Hadrian had learned already - so that lesson wasn't particularly interesting.

Potions proved to be quite enjoyable since Hadrian didn't have a lot of experience in brewing. Aunriton was adamant on teaching how to keep your brewing station clean, preparing your ingredients correctly, identifying different ingredients and potions, etc.

Hadrian had only brewed a couple of potions during his 2nd year, which was required for him to pass his practical exams, so he wasn't the best potion brewer yet.

The professor was impressed with Hadrian's knowledge and made a message of showing it by asking Hadrian whenever the class was stumped. This seemed to annoy a couple of the students in Hadrian's potion class, who felt as if Hadrian was flaunting his knowledge.

Hadrian was easily recognized as the 'foreign prodigy' everyone was talking about. The first thing that separated him from the others, was his skin-tone. It was very easy to discern that he did not hail from Mother Africa.

Hadrian had olive-tan skin, which was considered very light in Uganda, which is where Uagadou was based.

The other thing that caused Hadrian to be recognized quite easily was because his face was in Uagadou's newspaper, where he was heralded as a prodigy that beat duellists two years above his age.

In turn, this attracted quite a lot of attention to Hadrian. Attention, that Hadrian could do without.

After the potions class, Hadrian made his way over to his dormitory so he could relax as it was his break, but was stopped in his tracks when a trio of boys that Hadrian recognized from his previous class, stood before him - blocking the path.

The boys glared and sneered at Hadrian in a way they thought seemed menacing, but had Hadrian looking at them as if he was bored by their presence.

Hadrian realized that this was their attempt at 'bullying' him, which annoyed him. Had he honestly looked so weak as

"...Move.", Hadrian spoke as he looked at the trio.

The boy in the middle, which Hadrian noted as the 'ringleader' due to the way the other boys flanked him, sneered at Hadrian and barked, "Do you think you're better than us!?".

Hadrian looked at the boy, baffled at his incredulity. 'What a stupid question...', he thought to himself.

"Yes.", Hadrian answered as he made to step past them.

The boy snarled, "Nenda!", which was Swahili for 'Go!'.

The boys that flanked him charged at Hadrian with their fists, which Hadrian responded by dodging easily.

"Please-", Hadrian said as he swiped at one of the boys' legs.

"Don't-", He kicked at the boy's chest, sending him to the ground, clutching his torso.

"-Bother me again!", Hadrian replied as he threw the other boy at his fallen brethren.

The ringleader looked at Hadrian in a mixture of shock, anger, and a little bit of fear from the way he effortlessly handled his associates.

Hadrian looked at the boy, quirking one of his eyebrows, "I'll say it once more. Move.".

The boy clicked his tongue before stepping aside.

Hadrian smirked, "Good choice."

Hadrian walked a few meters away from them until he heard a voice from behind him.

"Hadrian!", Koni shouted as she ran towards Hadrian.

"Koni...?"

"That was so cool!", she continued, eyes twinkling with admiration.

"Thanks...?", Hadrian replied.

Koni nodded her head rapidly, "Uh-huh. When you did this - pow!", Koni attempted to do the kick Hadrian did earlier, "- And this, boom!", she said as she continued to mimic Hadrian's martial arts, "You were like a ninja!".

Hadrian nodded slowly, "...O-okay. You were watching me...-", Koni nodded, "-And never helped?".

Koni put her hands behind her back and looked bashfully at the ground, "I was going to help if you struggled! Promise!".

In truth, Koni wanted to see Hadrian overwhelmed by the trio, before stepping in and saving the day.

Hadrian had trouble believing Koni, but let it be, "Well, I'm fine.", he said as he walked on to his dorm.

Koni pouted as she watched Hadrian leave, "I'm on a break too..."

'I should have helped him from the start, even though he didn't need it...', Koni thought, berating herself for not stepping in earlier after she'd promised to treat Hadrian as a friend the day before.

Hadrian stepped inside his room, he had begun to transfigure parts of his room but hadn't worked on making any of the transfiguration permanent. He wanted to do it himself, but he also knew that it would take a while before he would be able to learn it.

He'd just have to settle for asking one of the older students.