Chapter Text
His eyes widened when he realised what he'd just done. He looked up, pleadingly. Her eyes, as cold as chocolate brown could be, stared back.
"Please,“ he whispered, "let me correct my mistake. Just this once.“
Her eyebrows went up half an inch in response, the only movement in her otherwise motionless face.
"You had your time to think, this is what you chose to do,“ she answered.
"I know how to make it right, I was just absentminded a teensy moment, come on!“ He moved his hand towards the table. Before he could reach it, she leaned forward and grabbed his wrist.
"Checkmate.“ she said with a smirk.
Angrily, Hugo yanked his hand away.
"Alright. Sure. If that's how you want to play,“ Hugo said with increasing volume, his anger building up. "FINE!“
He jumped up in a sudden movement and turned the small table in front of them upside down. Chess pieces scattered all over the floor, the board followed with a loud clank. "You know what, Rose? FUCK YOU! You think you're SO good and use every stupid occasion to show off your imagined superiority. This is RIDICULOUS.“
Rose's mouth had fallen open in surprise and she had pushed herself back in her chair to avoid the little wooden pawns. They were now scrambling to their feet and shook their little fists up at Hugo. Rose laughed.
"Excuse me? Who is being ridiculous here? Please spare me your hormonal antics, just because you're a sore loser!“
At that moment, their dad entered the living room from the kitchen, a spatula in his hand, looking between the two of them. Hugo was standing with his fists balled staring down at Rose, who was laughing in her brother's face. “What's going on?” Ron asked. “Hugo, why are you screaming at your sister?”
Rose arranged her face in an innocent expression and turned to their dad. “We were just playing chess and he suddenly flipped out because he didn't want to accept that I was winning!” she said accusingly.
“Now, now, son, what were we talking about just yesterday?” He pointed the spatula at Hugo, the other hand at his hip. “You should make a little more effort!”
Hugo scrunched up his face. “Of course you are taking her side. As always. I should make an effort? What about her? I'm so SICK of you all!”
He turned on his heel and stomped out of the room and up the stairs. His father shouted after him “SON! Don't talk like that to your parents!”
On the first landing Hugo entered his room and slammed the door shut. His heart was beating fast with anger. This was so typical. Here he was, trying to be nice and actually interact with his sister in a friendly manner to please his parents. And all they did was blame him again. His parents didn't have to listen to her condescending comments all day, her little manipulative moves just to annoy him when they weren't looking. Hugo sat down in front of his magic mixing console and turned the music on. A fast beat erupted and he closed his eyes to the sound taking a deep breath.
This house was just too suffocating. He wasn't usually rash or easily annoyed, just in this tense atmosphere around his family he felt like every of his words and movements was closely observed, judged and eventually turned against him. They didn't understand his humour and his hobbies. Everything he did was constantly compared to what they knew from their small-minded, posh world, and especially to what Rose had done and achieved at his age.
Increasing the volume of the beat, he started adding the latest sound sample he'd created. It was somewhat annoying to do the mixing manually instead of using the wand, but his parents were ridiculously strict when it came to underage magic, even if it was just at home and only for artistic purposes. To the left of the mixing console there was a small pipe, which he grabbed and took a few puffs. Mundungus had secretly given it to him at his last birthday. In Hugo's opinion, Mundungus was the coolest adult in the world. Not as stuck up and worrying all the time. He really knew how to relax. Even if Hugo didn't have a perfectly planned out future like Rose did, of one thing he was sure. He would never be as boring and caught up in social rules and do's and don'ts as his parents. He would be a free man, doing what he wanted, not what he ought to do.
There was a loud knock on his door. “HUGO!” his mum shouted over the music. “TURN DOWN THE VOLUME! I'm trying to work, no human can concentrate with this hammering!”
He groaned and adjusted the volume. “Then how about you let me put a SILENCING charm on my room?” he called back.
His mother opened the door, rolling her eyes exasperatedly. “This cannot be good for your brain, seriously, how can you even call this mu-” She interrupted herself and stared at his hand, where she'd spotted the pipe which was emitting purple smoke. Her eyes flashed dangerously. “AND WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT SMOKING INSIDE THE HOUSE? You do realize this stuff is illegal?”
She took big steps through his room, yanked the pipe out of his hand and, with a flick of her wand, stopped the music.
“Hey,” Hugo said into the sudden silence, “This is MY room! Give it back!”
Rose and his father had appeared in the door, completing the family gathering. Hugo saw his sister looking between her parents and Hugo, probably looking forward to the scolding, the traitor.
“Your room?” his mother said, throwing the pipe in the rubbish bin next to the table. “This is MY house, if you want to argue like this. Do you realise what happens when it comes out that my own son breaks the law frequently? Seriously, I don't know what to do with you anymore. Last month you get caught spraying the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron, in broad daylight, then my colleague sees you trying to sneak into this awful disco … do you ever even think about your actions?!”
Hugo jumped up from his chair and looked defiantly at her. This way at least she couldn't look down on him. He felt that it lessened the authoritative effect somewhat; his height was physical evidence that he was a grown-up! He thought it was greatly unfair to use those unfortunate accidents against him. So he got caught at bad moments, but it wasn't as if what he was doing things that other people at his age didn't do! He knew for a fact that Rose had been going clubbing since she'd been fourteen years old, but of course their parents wouldn't believe him even if he told them. Besides, they didn't know all the things he did without getting caught, but he found it was strategically unwise to use this as an argument.
“You make it sound as if I'm some criminal! It's not like I'm some Neo Death Eater, practicing Dark Magic!” he said annoyed.
“Ha, and I guess this is something we should be grateful for?” His father had stepped beside his wife and towered over Hugo – a clear winner in the silent height-battle. “For now, you're still underage, and I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in this house! One more of your actions and your silly audio box will be gone!”
There were a few seconds of silence. Then - “Okay. You won't tolerate your son in this house? That's quite alright. BECAUSE HE WON'T BE HERE ANY LONGER!”
With these words, Hugo walked over to his cupboard, took out his rucksack and frantically started stuffing clothes into it. Rose, still leaning in the door, let out a snort. “Oh right. See you tomorrow at King's Cross then. Have a fun night at Dave's.”
Hugo scowled. No-one ever took him seriously. “No, this time I'm gone for real. You'll see! I'm not going back to school!”
“Sure,” she said and turned to leave, apparently deciding that the action was over. His parents walked to the door as well. “No allowance for two months. And don't you dare be late for the train tomorrow,” his mother said irritably.
They knew from experience that grounding him had little effect, since both of them worked during the day and couldn't check whether he even stayed at home. Besides cutting him off money they had little leverage against him, as he well knew. Ha, Hogwarts Express. As if he'd board. He would show them that he could well cope without them. And this time he wouldn't come back, that was for sure.