Gideon Drake and the Fire Within (Harry Potter Sequel/Spinoff)

Chapter Thirty-Two: Game On

Gideon returned to his piece of toast as though it were something special and tried to ignore the looks that he was now getting.

'He was out late. We should go to Professor Voronov!' he heard Vinny urge the other first-years a few seats down.

'Where were you last night, Gideon,' Sasha enquired.

'Sasha!' Dorian chastised half-heartedly.

'What?' she replied innocently. 'With his track record, people are going to ask. He might as well answer.'

The girl was right, and Gideon could see that even Dorian wanted to hear Gideon's response, though, he seemed to be having an inner struggle.

Gideon shrugged casually and told them, 'I went for a walk. That's not a crime, is it?'

'No,' Sasha replied, 'but arson is. At minimum it's against school rules. If you're lying, you could get Slytherin into a lot of trouble, you know.'

'I'm not lying!' Gideon snapped convincingly.

'Of course, he's lying!' accused someone from the Ravenclaw table. Verity Swanson stood up, put her hands on her hips and declared, 'He's not going to be happy until someone gets hurt!'

'Oh, put a cork in it, Verity!' another voice said loudly before a large breakfast roll found itself magically lodged in Verity's gaping mouth. The awkward moment was interrupted with laughter and the girl stormed from the room with two of her friends trailing.

Gideon smiled weakly as he made eye contact with Talia at the next table, who gave him a wink as she pocketed her wand.

***

The rest of the week was strange, even for Gideon. The usual whispers and furtive looks he would get were replaced by people avoiding eye contact or sharing the same space with him altogether. When students spotted him coming towards them, they would often change direction or cling to the walls of the corridors. The younger students in particular seemed terrified of him.

Gideon would find the whole thing hilarious, if he wasn't now painfully aware that they had just cause to be afraid of him. The rumours about him, which Talia enjoyed sharing with Gideon, were getting more and more outlandish. Apparently, Verity Swanson was telling anyone who would listen that he was the lost child of You-Know-Who himself.

Then, there were the teachers. Unless Gideon was being paranoid, which admittedly was a distinct possibility, it wasn't just his father keeping a closer eye on him. Professor Long appeared to be paying him closer attention during Potions. Professor Keane had done the same in Charms, although, it had been in her replacement classroom that Gideon had accidentally released a jet of fire, so perhaps that was to be expected.

Professor Voronov had held him back after Transfiguration. Gideon supposed he was about to be reprimanded for his unusual lack of progress in transforming a terrapin into a fruit bowl. His looked as if it had simply been turned upside down.

Instead, however, the professor had asked, 'How are you, Mr Maxwell?'

To which Gideon lied, 'Fine.'

Then, after one of the enigmatic man's classic pauses, he followed up with, 'Is there anything you wish to tell me?'

Gideon's resolve had almost shattered right there. He wanted to come clean about what was going on with someone, and Professor Voronov had been supportive recently. Even so, he had bitten his tongue and shook his head silently.

'Well, my door is always open,' the professor had informed him peculiarly.

The strangest thing was his interactions with the Gryffindor boys. After running into them outside the Great Hall on the day after their fight, Scott and Sean had looked at him as if they were seeing a ghost. All the boys looked a little worse for wear actually, except for Greg who seemed disappointed to find Gideon alive and well.