First Impressions Are Never What They Seem (Josh)

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Being in Hogwarts was even more amazing than she could have ever imagined. The castle was huge but at the same time, not so large that she couldn't memorize the layout (she had done so within the first week), and the people were nice, too. With the exception of a few older people, whom she suspected probably were just stressed with their upcoming exams, the people she had met so far were amazing. There was Finley, an older year who was as into books as she was. Then there was Joe, whom she had already decided was her best friend. And of course, there were the others in her dorm and house who were fantastic, too.

It was a Friday after her classes for the day had finished, and she had a few hours to kill before dinner. Deciding to spend it outdoors, which had become one of her favourite places to be, just because everything there was twice as amazing as back at her place, she slipped out of the castle. Greeted by a slight breeze and the warm rays of sun, she grinned and took off at a run, wanting to get to the waters edge as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for her, she was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the boy coming round the corner and bumped straight into him. He wasn't someone she had met before, but he was definitely older, and didn't look very happy. It hadn't been a hard bump, because Brooke didn't fall down or feel bruised or anything, and at once she looked up at him, horrified. "I'm sorry I didn't mea-" she started, but was cut off when he roughly grabbed her arm.

"Look where you're going next time, you brat," he hissed at her, tightening his grip and she let out a tiny gasp.

"I'm sorry!" she repeated, trying to get her arm free. It was starting to hurt. A lot. "Please let go. It hurts!" He surely didn't mean to hurt her, after all. Surely he was just trying to make sure to understand what she did wrong.

But he didn't let go and it was really starting to hurt and she felt tears start to come to her eyes, both due to the pain and because she was utterly terrified.

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Being a prefect often meant that Josh was supposed to punish people for doing things he found amusing. It wasn't the best feat, but every time he put someone in detention, or told them off, they never seemed to do the same thing twice. For that much, Josh was glad because it meant a general decrease in the amount of work he had to do, and that was always a bonus.

Today he was scouring the grounds for trouble makers and at the moment, everything seemed to be going okay. Most had headed inside ready for the meal that evening, or were doing homework, but some people were out making the most of what was left of the summer sun. Josh was almost about to head in to dinner himself, or at least, go and change for dinner, when he noted something that wasn't quite right.

An older student was holding a younger student, by the looks of it quite painfully, and despite her asking him to let her go, the older boy would not. With a sigh, Josh pulled out his wand and flicked it towards the boy in question. No words left his lips, but a moment later the boy was hanging upside down by his ankle, having let go of the younger witch in his confusion.

"The girl asked you to let her go. Didn't you hear?" Josh asked the boy, noting the tie. "Five points from Ravenclaw. Don't let me catch you doing that again." Josh told the boy. He didn't acknowledge the young Gryffindor because quite honestly he didn't care for her safety. Instead he walked on a little bit, leaving the Ravenclaw hanging. He would drop soon, but Josh wanted to make him sweat it out a little bit first.

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Lowering her head to hide her tears, she did her best to keep them in, and turned away from him. Quite suddenly, the feeling subsided and Brooke turned to thank the boy for letting go when she found herself looking.. into his face? That wasn't right, and she glanced up to see he was seemingly hanging upside down, held up by something. Magic, she thought as her mouth dropped open. Who..?

Her mental question was answered when she heard a voice starting to speak and she spun around to see a much older Slytherin standing nearby, wand out. A prefect, obviously, by the way he took house points. Oh dear. She didn't mean to get anyone in trouble! As the boy-who-just-saved-her started to walk away, she finally snapped out of her senses and stepped away from the Ravenclaw bully.

"Wait," she called, moving towards the Slytherin, rubbing her throbbing arm. "Thank you," she continued, not forgetting her manners. Hesitating for a moment, she decided to add, "Aren't.. aren't you going to let him down?" In all honestly she was worried that the prefect thought that it was suitable punishment to leave him there, simply because she didn't like seeing anyone being hurt - and she wasn't sure if the spell hurt, although behind hung upside down forcefully would probably be painful...

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Josh had managed to get a little further up the path, almost at the bridge that took you back across the ditch to the castle when he heard a voice telling him to wait. Well, he didn't like being told what to do but the kid probably didn't understand who he was, if he was right she was only a first year. Slowing down his long paces just a little bit, Josh looked back slightly to see the Gryffindor hurrying after him.

The manners weren't overly necessary because it was part of being a prefect. Josh didn't acknowledge them for that reason and simply kept walking - slower than normal, but not too much slower.

"Aren't.. aren't you going to let him down?"

Pause.

Thump. "I did." Josh told the witch, hearing a groan from behind them from the boy who had been bullying the Gryffindor a few moments ago. "I'm not allowed to leave him there." He added, a small smirk on his features at the idea of leaving someone there for a while. "But it teaches them not to do such things again." He explained, looking down at the kid with a raised eyebrow. "Was there something else you needed?" Josh asked, prompting the kid to spit it out now, because he didn't like his time being wasted.

Especially not by children.

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Did he not hear her say thank you? Because when someone said thank you, you always said 'you're welcome'. At least, that's what Brooke learnt. But maybe he was shy. Does he not want me to thank him? she wondered. Or did he really not hear me? Finally, she decided to just drop it. Hopefully he had heard her or she would be seen as rude, and she did not like to be that.

After her question, there was a pause, and she was just beginning to ask again when there came a loud noise and her eyes widened even more. Turning, she saw the boy lying on the ground. "Is he okay? Is he hurt?" she blurted, before she could help it, worry obvious in her tone. "I didn't mean for him to get hurt.. It was my mistake, you know. I bumped into him and..-" she stopped herself with a shake of the head. "He's not hurt, is he?"

At the Slytherin's explanation, she nodded, slightly confused, but slightly more understanding. He was a prefect, after all, so he had to be right. And smart. They didn't make bullies prefects, so what the boy did was obviously the best thing to do.

"Was there something else you needed?"

Hesitating for a moment, she decided there was no harm in wanting to know. "How did you do that? Was it a spell?" she asked, stopping herself from asking even more. One question (or two, in this case) at a time. She had to walk quite fast to keep up with the older boy, but she didn't really mind.

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"Is he okay? Is he hurt?"

A small smile touched Josh's lips, only very small, and it was gone very quickly too. "He'll be fine." Josh told the witch, his tone not really conveying whether that was the truth or not, more of an automatic response than anything else. "It's a small lesson that bullying is not tolerated." Josh added, trying to make the witch worry less, because honestly there hadn't been anything too dangerous in what Josh had done. It most certainly could have been much, much worse.

Josh didn't look to see how this information was received, because it didn't make a difference to him, but when the question of how he did that came about, Josh smirked slightly. The witch obviously liked it.

"It's a spell." Josh agreed with her because she was clever enough to work that much out. "It's the Levicorpus jinx, you'll learn it in your fifth year, I believe." Josh explained, hopefully that would be all she needed to know now.

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The reassurance of the boy being fine made her relax a little. If a prefect said it was okay, then it must be okay! The way they dealt with bullies in Hogwarts did seem a little different than what she expected, but to the young witch, she knew no better. "I guess that's a good thing." She paused, then her eyes widened. "Are you saying he was bullying me? I've never been bullied before. I didn't realize he was doing that I just thought he didn't know he was holding me so hard." She didn't really realize what she was doing - thinking out loud - because it was just something that was a habit to her. "I guess I can see how it was... Are you sure that's what he was doing?"

"Levicorpus," she repeated slowly, trying out the new word. "Oh, only my fifth year? But that's so long away and it looks so interesting. If it doesn't hurt people, that is. Wait, you said it was a spell but I didn't hear you say anything? How do you do that? A spell without saying anything. Well, okay, there is magic you can do without a wand. I mean, I do magic without a wand but that's because my grandmother was a metamorphmagus too. How do you do spells without saying the thing out loud?" Her brain was going off in a million and two directions and she struggled to keep her sentences short, and still make sense. Tilting her head to the side, she look at the Slytherin. "And I am Brooke by the way. What is your name?"

Guest

The question of whether he was sure as to whether the boy had been bullying the witch made Josh sigh slightly. "Yes, I'm sure. Bullying has varying degrees, but he was doing it." He replied, Merlin this witch didn't shut up, did she? So many questions, it was more than a little annoying to say the least.

But the questions didn't stop there.

"Yes, fifth year, it's apparently a complex spell." Josh told her. "But that doesn't mean you can't try before. It's non-verbal magic. You cast the spell without saying anything, you'll do that in your sixth year." Josh answered, his tone monotonous because he didn't enjoy this. "I've been able to do it since my fourth year." Josh added, because he could. "You do it through a lot of concentration, and from being gifted in magic. Not everyone can do it."

"And I am Brooke by the way. What is your name?"

"Josh." The Slytherin answered, he didn't really care about her name, and it most certainly wasn't nice meeting the kid seeing as she now believed that she could just follow him around. But hopefully, if he kept it short, she would just... go away.

» First Impressions Are(n't) Everything [Christopher]
» First Impressions (Jacques)
» First Meetings and Impressions Formed (Alexander)
» Hopes Up (Josh)
» You can take all these letters (Josh)