Chapter - 21 Days passed by, and unknowingly as well as unwillingly Alex was again the focal point in the school[the first time when he beat up the Gryffindors]. People would come up to him for chats despite the house they belong to. There were times when Alex thought, why do people care more about others, than themselves. Well, the one who got rich was him, so why are they so happy? No matter how well they wished for him, he was not going to give away a single penny from his stash. It has been a few days since the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. In these few days, whenever Alex crossed paths with Harry and Ron, there would be a one-sided verbal fight between them. Ron would try to incite Alex into a fight by talking rubbish. Alex, on the other hand, tried his best not to fall for it. The school rules didn't mean much, but since his master has told him to be there to protect Potter, he might be wishing them to be on good terms, as much as possible. But there is a limit to everyone's patience, and Alex was far from being a saint. If Ron provoked him one more time, he will make sure that he regretted it with his life. Other than that everything was pretty typical. Classes were boring, as usual, Potter was the most cherished celebrity of Hogwarts, and so on. Like any ordinary day, Alex was in the library, the only place other than his room where he finds solace. He would come to the library regularly and go through the books while sitting in a corner. The books he read during these years would amount to nothing when compared to the books in the library. While he was going through the books, he noticed someone stood beside him quietly. He thought that the other party would initiate the conversation if they needed anything, but even after waiting for a while, no word was spoken. Alex closed his book and turned around only to see the Slytherin prefect Gemma Farley standing behind him. "Do you need anything?" Alex asked. "Umm... nothing I just saw you here, as I was passing by, so I thought I should say hello". Alex did not know what was the logic behind it, but he could not just refute her. "Ohh... Hello," Alex stood up, greeted her courteously and went back to reading. Gemma just stood silly. She wanted to have a nice, long conversation with him but now it was futile to stand here. Just as she was about to leave, someone came running in their direction. "Brother, have you seen Abbie? I can't find her anywhere". Nicole asked panting for air. Sweat could be seen all over her face. While Alex's kneazle's name was Erebus, Nicole's tabby cat's name was Abbie. Initially, Nicole wanted to name her McGy, but Alex thought that would be taking things too far between Nicole and Professor McGonagall. Right now things between them sound amusing, there was no need to disturb that. "Where have you looked?" "Everywhere in the Gryffindor dormitories" "What about Crookshanks? They may have wandered off together" "We have Crookshanks, that's why I am worried, it has been hours since I last saw her" "Well let's look around then". Alex said as he stood up to find Abbie. "Brother don't you know some magic to find her". Nicole asked. The main reason she came to her omnipotent brother[ in her eyes] was that she thought maybe he knew some tracking magic or something. "Well there are tracking spells, but they track magical signatures and activities, Abbie is a non-magical cat so we can only manually search her, let's go". Alex explained to his sister. Alex nodded towards Gemma and strode off with Nicole. When they gathered around he found that Harry and Ron were also there with Hermione. Alex looked towards Nicole for an explanation. He was quite happy to know that Nicole and Potter had their differences. Professor Snape has already asked him to make sure Nicole stays away from Potter. But now are they chummy again? Nicole whispered in his ears, "You see they are good friends of Hermione, and she persuaded them to apologise to me. I could not do anything other than going with the flow". Seeing Alex, Ron scoffed, while Harry did not have any peculiar expression. "Now that we are here, let's eliminate the places where you have already looked," Alex said. "Who are you to order around? Who made you the boss?" Ron snapped. It looked like he always waited for Alex to say something so that he could contradict it. "If you want, Harry can give the orders. But Weasley, talk to me in this tone again and I will slit that tongue of yours and shove it up your ass" Alex said as he walked up to Ron and squeezed his cheeks. Sensing that he was not joking, and the overwhelming aura emitted by Alex, Ron felt his legs go weak. The only reason he was not on the ground was that he was being held by Alex. "Alex it's enough, let him go". Harry pitched in to save his lackey. Alex looked towards Harry, then towards Ron, "Are you sure?" "Yeah" Harry replied, but on the other hand, Ron was vigorously shaking his head. "You asked for it" "BAAM" "Ron are you okay?" Harry held Ron in his arms lovingly, with great care and shook him, only to get muffled moans in reply. It was only after some time that Ron could get a hold of himself. "I guess you two won't be of much help today, let's go". Leaving Harry and Ron behind, Alex along with Hermione and Nicole searched the whole castle, only to find that silly tabby cat playing with Mrs Norris in front of Professor Snape's office. Professor Snape, on the other hand, was sitting on a chair reading a book while sunlight fell on him through the windows, he would occasionally look at the cats. When Professor Snape saw the three of them coming, he closed his book, and the soft expressions on his face changed to the usual cold look. "What brings you here?" he asked while observing the three of them. From the time in the class, when she fought with Snape, Nicole has maintained her distance from him. To say that it was entirely because of Alex would not be right, she did seem to be a little bit intimidated by Snape. "Professor we were searching for my sister's cat, that one who is playing with Mrs Norris," Alex said pointing towards the cats. As if they knew they were talking about them the cats stopped playing. Abbie ran towards them and leapt into Nicole's bosoms, while Mrs Norris walked gracefully['CatWalk'] and nudged Alex's leg. "Since you found what you came here for you can leave, Ashbridge come with me," Professor Snape said to the two girls, and gestured Alex to follow him to his office. "You go, I will be late" Alex said to Nicole before following Professor Snape. Nicole and Hermione could only leave dejected. After that Alex and Snape discussed something for some time, but no one knows what they talked about... * * * * *