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Chapter 74: “Humiliation II”
🕑 Added 2024-02-20 18:32:29 +0000 UTC"We have to stop this humiliation!" exclaimed Slughorn, watching as James continued to roll Rabastan with simple Flipendos.
"We can't. Rabastan still has his wand and keeps getting up," said Antennae coldly. The other professors could do nothing in the face of that logic. Besides Rabastan only looked dirty he had no serious injuries.
"Remind me never to joke about his mother," said Sirius with sweat on his forehead. The marauders nodded repeatedly.
'He's humiliating me...' thought Rabastan, ashamed and at the same time furious. His appearance was a mess. He noticed hundreds of stares at him.
"FUMOS!" he shouted angrily as a cloud of smoke covered him and began to billow over the area.
'Useless...' thought James with contempt.
"Ventus!" exclaimed James, pointing his wand at the cloud of smoke.
A gust of wind dispersed the cloud of smoke within seconds leaving Rabastan in sight, and he began to be pushed backward. With all his strength he resisted the powerful wind until it finally stopped.
'Ventus...?' thought Antennae with slight surprise on her face.
"Phew... phew..." breathed Rabastan with difficulty.
"I guess those are all your abilities..." commented James as he tapped his shoulder lightly with his wand, totally unconcerned.
James' objective from the beginning was to humiliate Rabastan in front of hundreds of eyes. The pride of the pureblood supremacists was very high. Receiving such humiliation will be a great psychological blow to him.
That was why his Flipendo was very weak. Not because his magic was weak, on the contrary, he restrained himself from sending it flying several meters and ending the fight quickly.
"What did you say you, bastard!" growled Rabastan, who managed to catch some breath.
"Don't you understand...? Besides being weak, you don't have much of a brain," said James with disdain and being heard by everyone, who was dumbfounded by his attitude.
'This is the James I always talk to about Quidditch!?' thought a dumbfounded William, who was in the Gryffindor stand.
Many people who knew James were also gawking. James' aura was different from his usual self.
'Humiliate him more James!' thought Gwen, who enjoyed watching James show off.
"Come on, attack me," said James, stretching out both arms and with a smile on his face.
James' grin gave Rabastan the creeps as he hesitated. He had attacked dozens of times, and none of them worked, "Flipendo!" said James again.
This time Rabastan felt a different pain when he was hit by the Flipendo. It was much stronger! Instead of rolling, he went flying many feet until he landed on the hard ground.
His whole chest felt as if he had received a hard punch that knocked the wind out of him. His back ached from the hard landing. Somehow he managed to hold his wand tightly and slowly got to his feet.
But this time James didn't leave time for him to get up quietly, "Flipendo Duo!" he shouted, and a red flash shot straight at Rabastan.
The impact sent Rabastan flying into the stone wall. This time he did not have the strength to hold his wand. The instant he was hit by the spell his wand slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.
The thrust was so hard that as he crashed into the wall he felt a great pain in the bones of his back.
"Tsch, garbage," muttered James, turning around and walking towards the marauders. All that could be heard were their footsteps until Professor Flitwick shouted the result of the duel.
"James Potter of Gryffindor wins!"
After that simple sentence, the entire Gryffindor stand began to shout and clap like crazy. Many started chanting James' name. No one had much confidence that he would beat Rabastan.
But not only did he beat him. He also humiliated him, and at no point was he on the verge of losing. It was as if an adult and a child were facing each other. James smiled awkwardly at the cheers, returning to his relaxed attitude.
"Well done, you bastard! Forgive me if I ever made a joke about your parents or anything!" said Sirius resting his arm on James' shoulder.
Everyone in the Gryffindor stands despite being shocked at how James acted, congratulating him and clapping happily. Rabastan and his gang weren't the only ones annoying Gryffindor. Slytherin students from other years were also very annoying and arrogant since they beat them in the Quidditch match.
Because of this, most Gryffindors were happy to have one of them beat a Slytherin from a large family and see the long, serious faces of the Slytherin stand, who quickly began to leave the room.
"Well done, James! That arrogant Lestrange bit the dust, literally!" said Gideon, laughing loudly as he patted James' shoulder hard.
"Easy brother. You're going to hurt him," said Fabian with a smile as he patted James' back hard.
Gideon and Fabian were brothers. They were both of the Prewett Family. A family of pureblood wizards included among the Sacred Twenty-Eight. However, they were not arrogant, nor blood supremacists like the Lestranges or other families.
Both brothers were part of the quidditch team. Both were batsmen. At this time when James joined the team they treated him very well, although they played the occasional prank on him.
"Let's party!" exclaimed William, and everyone cheered as James was led away to the Gryffindor common room.
Besides being happy that a Gryffindor swept the floor with a Slytherin, most of the 30% who bet in James' favor were from Gryffindor. So many were very happy to win so much money.
On the other hand, the students from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin who had gambled had long, depressed faces.
An impromptu party in the Gryffindor common room began. Some students who were studying quietly had to leave grumbling. They were brainiacs who weren't paying attention to school events.
Gideon and Fabian arrived a little later. At one point along the way they swerved and disappeared, something James noticed and thought was odd.
"Here, James! You won it fair and square," said Gideon, tossing him a small jingling bag.
James took the bag with a raised eyebrow. As he opened it a golden light almost blinded him. It was dozens of galleons.
"How much money is in here...?" asked James in surprise.
"100 galleons. Not one more, not one less," replied Fabian as he sipped butterbeer with a triumphant look as if he had won the lottery.
"Were they so confident that I would win...?" asked James doubtfully. He knew about the clandestine bet thanks to Sirius, and that most were leaning towards Rabastan. So, it would be a very risky move to bet so much money in his favor.
The marauders knew of his magical abilities, but the others did not have this knowledge.
"One person gave us information about your abilities..." said Gideon, winking at Sirius. James noticed this movement and looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Don't look at me like that. Thanks to this a lot of Slytherin lost a lot of money. You should see the faces of all the pureblood heirs who bet," said Sirius, justifying himself.
"Even Toby bet," he added.
"It's true," nodded Toby, scratching his cheek.
James was surprised that Toby, who seemed like someone who followed the rules would bet on something illegal. On second thought, it made sense. After all, he is a member of the Marauders.
"Me too," said Lupin and Peter. It would be foolish not to bet on James, when you know his victory is certain and when they can increase their money several times over.
The sudden party was over after an hour. The people who had decided to trust Sirius and bet on James were extremely happy to triple or more their money.
James was also happy he won 100 gallons for free, and he was also able to relieve his anger by teaching Rabastan a lesson. These two days, he was furious. He had to restrain himself on the same day not to go and attack Rabastan.
James didn't mind being mocked or called a blood traitor. It was a term that didn't affect him at all, one might even say he accepted it, as he would rather be a blood traitor than a supremacist who sees Muggles as animals.
What he could not tolerate was his mother being openly mocked. Euphemia most likely spent a lot of time writing the letter and sent it to him with love, and everyone in the great dining hall was laughing at his handwriting.
"You surprised me at the duel. I didn't think you could act like that," said Lupin, sitting on the couch near James. A little further away were Sirius, Peter, and Toby who were playing a game of explosive snap.
"I won't allow them to make fun of my mother..." said James shamelessly as he read a boring chapter of the history of magic.
Lupin looked admiringly at his friend. He knew his temper could change when someone messed with his family, but not as much as it was in the duel.
"You okay?" asked James without taking his eyes off the book.
"What? Yeah, sure. Why do you ask?" said Lupin a little surprised by the sudden question.
"No reason... you just look a little pale," said James as he looked for a moment at Lupin, and their gazes met.
"It's nothing. Just have some more butterbeer... I'm going to sleep now," said Lupin trying to act as natural as possible, but some nervousness showed in his voice.
