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AITA for verbally eviscerating my girlfriend’s ex at a high profile social event?
blonddragonxxx6969xxx, user flair "Posh Prat"
Throwaway because several members of the Wizengamot use this forum and I’m attempting to avoid another formal inquiry.
I (24M) have been in a serious relationship with my girlfriend (25F) for approximately eight months. She’s a war heroine, completely brilliant, and while she sometimes dives headfirst into the oddest of causes, I’ve decided my life’s work is to make her every dream come true.
We had a very rough start in our younger days, but as we got older things shifted between us and we now have (what some have called) an annoyingly healthy relationship.
Her ex, let's call him Weasel the Wanker, has spent the better part of a year pretending he’s “concerned for her wellbeing,” while openly implying I manipulated her into the relationship. This is despite the fact that she is the single most terrifyingly autonomous person I’ve ever met (if you knew who I was, you’d understand how devastatingly impressive that is.)
Now, I’ve tried to be patient, but every wizard has his limits..which brings us to the incident.
Last night there was a Ministry gala. My girlfriend (I’ll call her G) attended on my arm, looking radiant as always. Everything was fine until I stepped away to speak with the Minister and returned to find WW cornering her near the champagne table.
I initially intended to be civil. Unfortunately, as I approached I distinctly overheard him telling G that “she’s blind for not seeing how she’s being manipulated” and has “lost both her common sense and moral compass.” She was clearly not interested in being verbally degraded by the oaf, and politely tried to step away. That’s when he put his bloody hand on her.
Now, in my defense, I did not avada him on the spot.
What I did do was loudly ask whether he was genuinely attempting to seduce another man’s partner in the middle of a diplomatic function “with the subtlety of an intoxicated flobberworm.”
He turned beet red (which is only half a shade darker than his normal state) and proceeded to loudly accuse me of putting her under a mind control spell (which is patently ridiculous, she’s been able to throw off an imperius since fourth year, everyone knows that).
I informed him that blaming dark magic for his failed relationship was deeply ambitious, even for him. I further explained (nearly out of patience at this point) that his strategy of publicly insulting her judgement had never worked for him before, and if he’d like to keep trying I’d introduce him to a few dark spells would have made even the Dark Lord go green in the gills. Then I concluded by telling him she only returned his owls out of a sense of concern the poor animal wouldn’t get a square meal if she didn’t personally keep it fed, and noted that after looking at the state of his robes, I now shared her concern for the state of his finances.
G says she understands why I reacted, but thinks I escalated the public humiliation a bit too forcefully.
Theo believes I’m NTA because “he wandered into the snake pit smelling like a rat.” However, Pansy says I am TA, but only because I “stopped before making him cry.” G’s friend H said he was staying out of it, and looked a bit exhausted.
So, AITA?