Leon had seen the new boy here and there: with looks like his, it was hard to simply walk past him without the image of him being burnt into your memory. Long, wavy and flaxen hair elegantly resting on his narrow shoulders as he walked, his steps graceful and full of self assured pride typical for people who were beautiful. His light blue eyes were always in a permanent narrow and they reminded Leon of a cat, especially when Claude’s pupils narrowed visibly whenever walking in a bright light. Leon could also see his adolescence had already started from the way his featured lacked the childish roundness, but unlike with many other boys, his skin remained smooth and soft looking, like that of a girl’s. His voice showed only the slightest hint of cracking, reminding Leon of just how terrible his own had been when it started, and feeling a strike of childish jealousy over such a slow and stable change he himself had not had the luxury of receiving.
Claude was someone Leon would have wanted to like. An ambitious person just like he was, with a desire to lead people. He was self assured and determined, and had the kind of smarts Leon knew he himself lacked, whereas Claude lacked Leon’s athletic and strong physique. They could have been pretty good friends despite their two years of difference in age, and in a way Leon felt like he would have wanted to push Claude to the right direction, like a mentor or brother of sort.
Too bad Leon didn’t like Claude much.
It started out with small things. Leon had seen Claude the first time when he was taken to the third years’ common room to entertain them. It was nothing unusual, just some childish bossing around seniors each year did to the new boys. Sometimes they also invited their favourites over to hang out with them, either as entertainers or servants of sort, or simply as friends.
Claude had originally been invited there to be made fun of so that the older boys could establish their dominance. But instead he had outsmarted and humiliated a student who had jokingly suggested kissing, and as such earned the respect of almost everyone who was in the room - Leon included, back then. He had been amused by the first year’s wits, but hadn’t given more thought to Claude in particular - he was busy hanging around with Jet or doing something foolish and reckless to gain his own approval from others.
From then on Claude became a regular in the third year’s common room. There were other students too from years one and two though, so Leon had not given special attention to Claude, although he had noticed Claude seemed to be everyone’s biggest favourite.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
As the time went by, however, Leon started to notice a change in Claude. Or rather, it was a change in the way people viewed him. Small streams had turned into a river: Claude had gained so much approval he was fast becoming the new idol of the school, rivaling even the boy called Julius whom Leon remembered from his time as a first year - but he had only heard of tales of what went down in the third year’s common room with Julius.
Before he noticed it, Claude was flirting with every boy of the school. It was subtle and tactful as not to alert the teachers, but every boy of the school knew what Claude was up to, and what he was capable of. At some point it was not an odd sight to see the first year in third years’ areas, usually some guy lying on his lap while Claude pet his hair and talked sweet in a way that was polite, but romantic enough to get other adolescent guys all weak.
And then he started to reveal his true nature. People who didn’t like Claude usually ended up in trouble in a way or another, and soon it was clear to everyone Claude was behind it all. If you got on his bad side you’d definitely feel it biting you back sooner or later, and in order to advance his own popularity and rank within the internal hierarchy he’d double deal, lie and plan to get what he wanted. As another fairly popular student, Leon saw all this with his own eyes. He never interfered, but he felt uneasy about Claude and the things he could do.
But what really made Leon hate Claude was the way he treated Chris. Leon couldn’t see what the prefect saw in Claude, making him his roommate during the spring.
Chris overlooked what Claude did, and Claude would constantly try to outsmart Chris. The two would often enter into debates. Usually Chris won simply because of his authority over Claude as a prefect, but it was clear Claude never felt like he truly lost to Chris.
Leon didn’t know how Chris felt about Claude as the two had not been too close after their first year in shared room, but he couldn’t help but feel angry about how Claude was constantly trying to make fun of Chris. Sometimes he even succeeded, and Leon was certain Claude was using Chris just like he did with everyone else. That boy had no concept of mercy nor empathy; he did exactly as he wanted and what entertained him the most, and everyone else was on his leash.
Leon didn’t like that. He didn’t like the way Claude looked down upon others, those cold cat eyes arrogantly glancing over even boys much older than him. Especially when it came to Chris and the way Claude treated him, Leon could hardly contain his anger: Chris was still a friend to him, and seeing a friend constantly being forced to deal with Claude’s fickleness was infuriating.
Claude was a devil, and Leon refused to accept him. He would never forgive him and he would never want to associate with someone who so coldly treated everyone around him like a disposable waste.
And then, after Chris’ disappearance, when Leon heard about Claude getting a new roommate, he knew what he was going to do.
He was not going to let Claude terrorize yet another boy. Leon didn’t even know who the newcomer would be, but he had already decided to warn him about his snake of a roommate.