Austin’s vision was tinted red after Sebastian, he had been in denial over how bad everything was now. He had no plan from the beginning, he had wanted to believe that it would all go away—even though he knew it wouldn’t until he did something. But now he had to fix this, fix everything or else.
Up ahead, Austin made out Emily and Sebastian’s profiles as they ascended the stairs, passing students as they went back to their dorms from dinner—each one turning to watch Austin run after Sebastian. When he was close enough he found the two stopped, in front of them stood Katelyn Hartnett, her shoulders squared as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and stepped closer.
“That’s far enough,” Katelyn stated as she walked, her hair was flipping behind her as she walked.
“This doesn’t concern you,” Sebastian scoffed as his grip on Emily tightened.
“It doesn’t concern the Malfoys either,” Katelyn snorted as she passed under one of the torches, her hair gaining a blue tint as she smirked. “Just let me see if I got this all worked out correctly, you have father issues. The Malfoys are somehow involved, you want to destroy Austin and gain…what is it exactly?”
Sebastian’s grip on Emily tightened as he glared, “the satisfaction of ruining Austin Malfoy.”
Katelyn scoffed, “just give up, Brown. You’re not going to win.”
Sebastian turned to Emily, whispering something low in her ear, with a nod Emily pulled out her wand and faced Katelyn.
From separate sides of the hall, Austin and Katelyn locked eyes, both shocked as Emily advanced on Katelyn, wand in hand.
“I’ll give up when I’ve won,” Sebastian smirked.
“What have you done to my sister?!” Austin shouted loudly, causing a few students from down the other end of the hall pause and look at the commotion.
This wasn’t good, Austin thought, people would be coming down this hall soon...he realized as sweat broke on his neck. The red tint in his vision moving ever so slightly.
Emily’s head turned and looked at Austin, the dead orbs that looked at Austin suddenly had life, “Aussie!” Emily screamed in pain as her limbs moved on their own, her eyes going back to the dull, lifeless orbs yet again as she returned to advancing on Katelyn.
“I wouldn’t talk to her,” Sebastian commented, triumphant in his stance. “Those candies she’s been eating have a rather powerful ingredient that have major adverse effects.”
“Emily!” Austin looked beyond Sebastian, Emily was fighting Katelyn, throwing spells silently—a trick taught by their father. “Emily! It’s Kate, you’re friend!” Katelyn shouted as she deflected a spell.
“You do know what the Imperius curse is right, Hartnett? Did you know that you could make a version of that into a potion?” Sebastian was cackling, “Emily is basically a walking puppet now, all because the potion got triggered just from one little thing,” Sebastian looked at Austin, his shoulders squared as he grinned. “Care to know what the trigger was, Malfoy?” Austin’s knuckles were turning white, more students were appearing at the end of the hall as Katelyn was able to restrain Emily with a binding spell—causing her to fall to the ground in a heap. “Your dear little sister said: ‘sorry’ that single word triggered this.” Sebastian gestured with his hand behind him with a triumphant grin.
That was the final straw, the red tint now absorbed everything as he lashed at Sebastian. It didn’t take much for the well-built quidditch player to overpower the weak Gryffindor, Austin didn’t let off as his fists connected with Sebastian’s face and body.
A long time ago, things would be different, this wouldn’t be happening. None of it would. These two boys once were best friends, but when Austin became Austin and got his father’s looks and girls began to notice. The two had a falling out, Austin was given the title of a king—being the most attractive Gryffindor at school—while Sebastian had to take a back seat. Getting any girl Austin wasn’t interested in. It was hard to believe that Austin Malfoy was ever friends with Sebastian Brown, especially as Austin’s fists sprouted blood from Sebastian’s nose and mouth.
Hands pried Austin off, but he wasn’t through, he continued to thrash before a hand connected with his cheek.
“People are staring mate, quit it,” Mark’s voice said in his ear.
Austin looked around, sure enough there were students everywhere, staring in shock at what they’d witnessed. How long had they been there? Austin thought to himself. Sebastian was groaning on the floor, clutching his nose as he slowly got up. When he stood, he was smirking.
“Oh how our king has fallen,” Sebastian said with a dark laugh.
Austin looked around, all the students were looking on in silent shock, Austin never lost control. Never lifted a hand, but now here he was…clear evidence that Austin Malfoy could get violent. Everyone knew he was protective of Emily, Austin was never a violent person—he was always calm and collected. But now here was evidence that Austin was just as cruel as the next person. He was thought of better than just someone to throw punches, but now he wasn’t.
Sebastian wanted to destroy Austin Malfoy’s reputation and he had succeeded. Just not in a way Austin had expected.
“Now what, my lord?” Sebastian mocked.
“A duel, at the Halloween dance, we’ll finish this then,” Austin said with a confident nod.
“What does the winner get?”
“Anything they wish,” Austin said.
Sebastian smirked and held out a hand covered in his blood, “deal.”
Students around them began to whisper as Sebastian walked away, Austin looked around but didn’t see Katelyn or Emily anywhere.
“Kate took Emmie into an empty room,” Mark said from behind Austin.
He turned to see his two best friends watching him expectantly, Austin followed them away from the students who continued to whisper nasty things as he passed. He followed Mark and Gerard up a flight and into a deserted classroom to find Katelyn sitting beside Rory while Emily lay on the floor. Austin knelt beside Emily, moving her soft curls away from her face. She was unconscious now and her body was stiff from the binds that held her.
“Your father taught her nonverbal spells, didn’t he?” Katelyn asked harshly.
Austin noticed a few cuts on her cheeks and frowned, “I’m sorry.”
Katelyn nodded, “what’s going to happen now? I took off with her when you started pounding the shit out of Brown.”
“Duel in five days,” Austin nodded as Mark and Gerard sat down beside Austin. “I thought we got rid of all the sweets,” Austin looked at Rory expectantly.
“We did,” Rory stammered.
“She went wacky because of them,” Austin said. His voice cold and harsh, Rory flinched.
“Emily has a sweet tooth, we all know that, which means that she most likely sat there and ate those sweets every time she could. If there was a potion in them…it’d take possibly a month until the effects wear off once she’s done ingesting it. Constantly eating the potion means a higher concentration, meaning that she’s going to be under Sebastian’s control until its out of her system,” Gerard said matter of fact as he studied the unconscious girl.
“Why did she look so…dead?”
“Why did she attack me?” Katelyn said sourly.
“Because she’s under Sebastian’s control, what you two didn’t realize was that whatever love potion Brown got from the Weasleys was extremely powerful and he made sure to add something extra to the potion,” Austin said when he closed his eyes. He pressed his palms into his eyes, trying to deter any tears. “She said ‘sorry’ and all of a sudden she becomes a walking doll…my sister….”
“No one blames you,” Katelyn’s voice echoed around the room from beyond Austin’s closed eyes.
“I blame you,” Gerard muttered darkly.
“I do too actually,” Mark agreed.
A resounding slap was heard and Austin smiled slightly, he knew what happened—Katelyn had slapped the two.
“What’s the plan boss?” Mark asked after several moments of silence.
“Aussie.”
No one spoke, Emily moved her head from side to side as she moved against the ropes that still bound her.
“What’re we going to tell her?” Rory asked.
“Nothing, keep it quiet.”
“That won’t last long, the entire school saw what happened,” Mark commented.
“She’ll think they’re all lies, if Emily finds out it would hurt her.”
“Like she hurt me,” Katelyn commented.
“That wasn’t her fault,” Austin snapped.
Katelyn rolled her eyes slightly and sighed. “So you’re going to fix this all?”
“That’s my plan,” Austin confirmed.
“Glad to see that you finally got a plan, thank you for taking your sweet old time,” Katelyn said sarcastically as she glared.
“You know, Emily is younger than me and she didn’t spend as much time as I did with our father the auror. Who, I will remind you, taught me loads of things. I can take you and won’t even break a sweat. So if you care to proceed with your sarcasm, piss off or pull out your wand and let’s have a go,” Austin growled.
Katelyn was quiet and shook her head, “just fix this. Now.”