The new year began at Hogwarts, as in the previous year the looks on my housemates' faces were nothing but mockery.
Vincent directed me more than that, he was clearly furious that Bridget was sticking close to me.
From the whispers I learned that he wanted to look for her on the train, but was stopped by Draco.
They seemed confident in convincing her to "do what's right."
I on the other hand was just waiting for them to step out of line to teach everyone a lesson.
I just hope Madam Pomfrey has enough Skele-Gro for them.
Another big topic during the welcome banquet was Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban, the Ministry was completely lost looking for him and had no idea where the criminal could be.
As a tradition for the past nearly fifty years, a new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor has been announced. Remus Lupine, an almost middle-aged man with an unkempt appearance and shabby clothes.
After the banquet, with the Headmaster's standard announcements, we headed to our Houses.
Bridget continued walking close to me, not giving the pig a chance to approach her.
Arriving in the common room we said goodbye and she went to the girls' dormitory and I waited a little to see what would happen.
Malfoy's little group watched me for a while until Draco got the courage to come up to me.
"Mao, you need to remember who you are, you better get away from Storm before things get ugly for you." – declared Draco, trying to appear intimidating.
He had too much power within Slytherin mainly because of his father's influence, some even say that Snape takes special care of him.
The problem is, I don't care at all who his father is, especially now that they were trying to force Bridget to marry Crabbe.
"I don't care what you do to me, but if you touch a hair of hers I'll make sure you will think about the infirmary as a second home." – I replied to them.
Malfoy sneered.
"You need to get back to real life, do what we tell you or you'll be the one who ends up in the infirmary." – he threatened.
I just shook my head.
They had not change a bit, the fact that Malfoy had the support of Marcus Flint, the Captain of the Quidditch team, gave him even more prestige within Slytherin.
Another rumor from the banquet table was that Malfoy had bought new brooms for everyone on the team to secure their Seeker spot.
The previous Slytherin Seeker had graduated last year, all he needed to do was participate in the tryouts, but no, he needed to guarantee that the place would be his.
This kind of mentality of rich people sometimes gave me a headache. They think that everything in the world is theirs or that they should have a reserved place no matter the circumstance.
I stayed another half hour in the common room before heading to my room.
The effect of my little encounter with Malfoy had a more immediate effect than I expected.
My roommates had already left when I arrived at the dorm. Given the way the room was, they hurriedly left to avoid letting the little prince think they were my friends.
This was bound to happen, but as they were different colleagues from the previous year, I thought I would need to live with them for at least a week.
But it seems the news came faster than I expected.
I was branded as someone who didn't know their place and anyone who associated with me would suffer the consequences.
Oh, how I love those ready-made phrases that purebloods tend to repeat whenever someone doesn't bow to them.
Little did they know that this situation was perfect for my plans.
The day had been tiring, I let my body fall onto the bed and soon I was asleep.
During the night I heard the lock on my door being opened.
I didn't know whether to smile or curse.
I jumped out of bed, ready to attack whoever came in.
Crabbe was first.
With a left cross I made his brain jiggle like jelly.
Goyle then appeared inside the room.
With a right hook I made him look at the ceiling before completely blacking out.
Flint didn't get a chance to enter the room, because I closed the door directly in his face. From the sound of it, our Quidditch captain's nose was gone, perhaps some of his hideous teeth too.
With the two gorillas lying at my feet I started thinking about what I could do in the next twenty seconds before they managed to open the door again.
With the most obvious one in front of me I mercilessly stepped on their hands and then delivered a good kick to each one in the face to repeat the effect the door had on Flint, only I made sure they lost a few teeth.
When the door finally opened I already had a punch ready.
I didn't even know who was in front of me, I just knew I hit him between the nose and the forehead.
My target's body was in motion trying to enter the room, his legs were propelling him forward while my fist was making his head go back. He fell sprawling on the ground, before he even hit the stone floor he was out.
With a cross on each side I knocked out two more and then all that was left was Flint holding his mouth and nose between Malfoy and me.
I took two steps and kicked the ugly guy in the knee.
The sound of his knee breaking was music to my ears.
Malfoy screamed like a helpless maiden and tried to run.
I grabbed him by the hood of his robe and made him fall backwards onto the floor. Without thinking twice I stepped on his face making him howl in pain
At that moment the doors to the other rooms opened and my other housemates could see what was happening.
And that's when I lost my chance to do even more damage.
Snape didn't take long to arrive.
With six purebloods on the ground, he only gave me a look before exploding.
"What do you think you are doing, Mr Mao?" – he shouted, furious.
I looked him up and down.
"Just defending myself Professor." – I said in a casual tone.
Snape then ran to Malfoy's aid before anyone else.
He was perhaps the one who had received the least damage during the incident, he was basically the only one conscious.
Flint had passed out due to the pain of having his knee brutally broken.
"If I were you I wouldn't unpack my bags." – he declared as he placed the little prince on his feet.
I shrugged.
I went towards my room and started dragging the other idiots out of it.
When I finally finished, I just closed the bedroom door and went back to sleep.
The early morning sun came through the small dungeon window, waking me up. That had been one of the best nights of sleep I've had in months, better than just when Bridget slept in my arms.
When I opened the door to my room I saw Gemma Farley waiting.
"Professor Snape awaits you in the Headmaster's office." – she said, turning her back.
Putting my mind to work in search of a reason why she was the one to warn me about this, I finally recognized the three others I had knocked out the night before, they were the Slytherin male Prefects.
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