Mountain Fold (Oliver Wood)

Chapter Eighteen

"What are we learning in Charms today?" Darian asked Anna lazily, she shrugged nonchalantly in reply. They were making their way to Charms class which was fun and something they always looked forward too, Professor Flitwick wasn't her favourite professor, but he was a great teacher. Anna snapped out of her musings when she heard something going on ahead of them.

"What's that?" She asked.

Darian frowned at her and they both headed towards the direction of where they could hear a ruckus, "I'm not sure, perhaps it's a fight."

Anna definitely hoped it wasn't. As they got closer they could hear part of what someone was saying.

"Everyone knows that Hufflepuff's are weak, they couldn't even beat Gryffindor in quidditch."

Darian was mad, and he didn't even know what was going on, he was rushing towards the scene with Anna following, struggling to keep up. Little did they know that when they got to the source of the disturbance, they would be getting a whole lot angrier.

They rounded the corner into a courtyard and stopped in shock. A small group had gathered, mostly first years who looked too scared to intervene with what was happening in the centre of the courtyard.

Marcus Flint was standing in front of a frozen Zinnia, who looked to mortified to move. Anna didn't know what happened or what antagonized Marcus, but he did not look happy. She didn't know how long Zinnia had been there with Marcus shouting at her, but he had been the one to make the comment about Hufflepuffs.

He was also not finished his verbal abuse; the moment Anna and Darian had made it around the corner they heard him say something that both made them see red.

"You nasty Mudblood."

Marcus might not have noticed them when they arrived, but it didn't take him long to notice them when Darian hurled himself at Marcus. Zinnia saw that Marcus was distracted and turned to see what he was looking at, only to see an enraged Darian. She managed to stop him before he could leap at Marcus, Zinnia was stronger than she looked so she was able to hold Darian back. Marcus just looked amused.

Unfortunately, this meant that the attention of the two of them was on Darian and Darian was focused on Marcus. This meant that none of them noticed the small angry Hufflepuff that had lunged at Marcus.

A loud crack resonated around the courtyard, then silence.

Everyone was staring in shock, even Darian had stopping fighting to get out of Zinnia's grip and looked at Anna in stunned silence. Although none of them were more surprised than Anna herself, who had never intentionally hurt someone in her life, let alone punched someone in the face.

She instantly regretted her actions, she had been so blinded by angry that she had acted on pure instinct. But looking at Marcus now who had turned red in the face and looked too angry to even talk she realised that perhaps she hadn't made the best move. Especially when he now towered over her, looking ready to attack, it was now him acting on pure instinct.

This was enough to snap Zinnia and Darian out of their stunned states and prepare to defend Anna who was frozen in fear and shock. But that wouldn't be necessary. As soon as Marcus looked ready to return Anna's forceful gesture -although probably with more strength than she used- he was interrupted.

Professor McGonagall marched onto the scene, followed by a timid first year Gryffindor. It only took her a few seconds to assess the scene with her sharp eyes before acting quickly.

"Mr Flint!"

Thankfully that was enough to snap Marcus out of his angry before he acted.

"Get to class all of you!" McGonagall snapped to the small gathered crowd before turning her attention to the three Hufflepuff's and Slytherin standing in the middle of the courtyard, "Explain now."

"She punched me!" Demanded Marcus immediately, pointed accusingly at Anna. McGonagall turned her gaze to Anna.

"Is that true, Miss Elwyn?" She demanded.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall," Anna mumbled, avoiding eye contact with her Professor.

McGonagall looked surprised for a second, "for what reason?"

"He called Zinnia a Mudblood!" Darian growled, glaring at Marcus.

McGonagall frowned when she finally got an idea of what had occurred. She pointed at Zinnia and Darian, "you both can go to class."

Neither of them looked happy about that but they walked off in different directions, casting multiple glances behind them. McGonagall turned back to Marcus and Anna with a heavy sigh.

"Both of your actions today were unacceptable, you will be give detention, a letter will be sent home to your parents and twenty points will be taken from Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Hopefully this will teach the both of you not to resort to name calling or violence again."

Marcus didn't look very happy with his punishment but knew better than to complain, Anna just nodded in agreement.

"This will not happen again. Understood?" McGonagall asked and they both nodded, but Anna with more enthusiasm. They received a doubtful look from their Professor before being dismissed back to their classes.

Anna hurried off back to class, not daring to look back when she felt Marcus glaring at her. She was puffing slightly by the time she had made it to class, walking in to a chaotic classroom. Professor Flitwick made his way over when he noticed her.

"Ah Miss Elwyn don't worry, Mr Sauvage explained why you were late. As you can see we're practising the Banishing Charm today as you can see. If you'd take your seat..." Flitwick trailed off, getting distracted by a book hitting him in the back.

Anna made her way over to sit with Darian who immediately bombarded her with questions about her punishment.

"I got detention, a letter sent home and I lost twenty house points," she answered him.

"Another detention? That's the second one this year."

"I know, Mum and Dad will probably send a Howler," she grumbled.

Darian snorted in reply, "I think that they'd probably be proud of you for standing up for yourself... although perhaps not that happy with the way you did it."

"Could this day get any worse?"

"Don't jinx it Anna, we're learning a charm today not a jinx," Darian joked teasingly. Anna glared at him as she tried to perform her Banishing Charm, unfortunately this meant she was distracted. And unluckily for Anna, they had Charms with the Gryffindors. The cushion she sent flying completely missed her target and instead hit Oliver Wood in the face.

Darian found this absolutely hilarious, "what did I tell you Anna? You jinxed it."

Anna didn't dare even glance at Oliver as she collapsed on her desk with an almighty groan.