It was dinner time when Gabriel found himself tucked away in one of the restrooms. A pause to breathe and splash his face with cold water was needed after being shouted at by some particularly irritated boys while heading down the stairs. He'd nearly broken his neck, forgetting about one of those trip steps.
The bathroom door swung open, then closed as a familiar voice called, "Carnet!"
Green eyes slid up towards the mirror and past his own reflection at the trio that had apparently decided to follow him. "Rosen," he greeted blandly, nodding to the brown haired Slytherin.
"It's not nice, walking off in the middle of a conversation."
"I don't remember much conversation happening, Rosen."
"Now that you mention it—" Rosen looked to the boy at his left, a fair skinned Ravenclaw by the name of Binner, then to the one on his right, another dark haired Slytherin named Erwood. Each of them cast a spell, one to lock the door and the other to silence the room. "—I do remember you ignoring us. Bit rude, innit?"
"Conversation," Gabriel said as he turned around, the single word drawn out as if Rosen was particularly dense, "implies that all parties wish to be involved, which I certainly did not, and still do not."
"Y'know, Carnet," Rosen said with an easy smile that nearly made Gabriel shudder. "You've got some mouth on you." With a glance at Erwood, the two approached the Hufflepuff with Rosen a few steps ahead of the other. "I'm starting to see why Snape keeps sneaking off with you."
Gabriel didn't notice when he took a step away from the pair. "Don't be ridiculous. He doesn't sneak off for anything with me."
"I've been wondering," Rosen went on, as if Gabriel hadn't spoken at all, "what you can do with that thing, other than yap everyone's bloody ears off."
"I'm not interested-"
"Come off it," Erwood interrupted, a strange sneer on his face. "Everyone knows you're easy."
"With a thing for Slytherins, no less," Rosen added all too smugly. He moved that much closer to the Hufflepuff as he listed off on his fingers, "Meads. Boyle. Etienne. Snape. Oh, and let's not forget that Ioannou girl you're always hanging off of. You know she's not really interested, don't you?"
It was then that Gabriel realized how badly he'd been cornered, herded away from the sinks and half behind where the toilet stalls ended. "This isn't a game, Rosen. I suggest you and your lot leave it now."
He only heard Erwood's snicker before he was hit by a spell. Thick ropes wound themselves around his legs, and with so little space between him and the end of Rosen's wand, the force of it knocked Gabriel hard against the wall. His knees buckled, but with his arms still free, he caught himself before his face met the floor. He looked up and froze at the way the boys stared down at him. Even Binner, who hadn't moved away from the door, was looking on with the same interest as the Slytherins.
"No," Rosen said, the single word punctuated by the zip of his fly. "It really isn't, Carnet, so you'd best do as you're told."
Gabriel's blood ran cold as he watched Rosen's hands move, as he took in the watchful eye of Erwood while their 'leader' was occupied, as he saw the nervous excitement that made it difficult for Binner to keep still. When Rosen, standing too close and breathing too hard, pulled out his cock, Gabriel had to turn his face away as he sat up on his knees to keep himself from knocking his nose against the engorged member.
When he reached for his collar, Erwood was quick to stop him with a sharp shout and a drawn wand.
Rosen grinned, easily catching on to what the other Slytherin had spotted. "Don't think we haven't caught that trick of yours. How many years have we been in this school together? It's clever, but you Hufflepuffs aren't very subtle."
Gabriel swallowed and shut his eyes, but that only made it easier to feel the warm body so close to him. "Look at that," he heard Binner say from across the room, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw a mix of surprise and... pride in the Slytherins' expressions. Binner, he noted distantly, seemed to be the newest member of their little group. Rosen and Erwood acted like old friends, the way they moved and spoke, always seeming to be on the same page. Binner was a year under the pair, but his round face made him look even younger. He couldn't remember if the Slytherins were in his own year or the one under. He should have, it should have been obvious. It wasn't.
"Practically begging for it," Erwood agreed with the Ravenclaw. Gabriel took short, rapid breaths, and though his eyes darted away from Rosen, he didn't let the boy out of his sight.
"Get on with it," Rosen snapped, giving himself a single firm pump before he grabbed a fistful of Gabriel's hair. "You're testing my patience."
Worried, Gabriel decided as he took a shuddering breath. Rosen, for all of his bolstering, was starting to lose his nerve with every moment that he hesitated and kept the group in the restroom. They weren't off in some obscure wing of the castle, and dinner wouldn't last forever. This had been an impulse, and the thrill would wear off fast without more to keep him happy.
When that hand tugged at his hair, he let out a hiss of pain and braced his palm against the boy's hip. Then the other, close enough that his fingers grazed the stitching of his fly. His sleeves slid down on pale arms. Rosen praised his sudden compliance.
A twist of his wrist, and Gabriel pulled his wand from his sleeve.
He fired off the first spell that came to mind.
The blast of steam that erupted from his wand seared the side of his face, but that was nothing compared to Rosen's screaming.
Rosen fell back in a heap, his pants soaked and his skin red and blistered.
"What the fuck!" Erwood shouted, but when he moved towards the crumpled Slytherin, Gabriel turned his wand at him.
"Araneum Implicitum!" A net of spider's silk burst from the tip of his wand, enveloping Erwood entirely, and with a flick of his wrist, the net flew towards the bathroom wall, slamming the Slytherin against it and pinning him there in a tangle of sticky webbing.
As Binner fumbled for the door, Gabriel freed himself from the ropes around his legs. He kicked them aside and scrambled to his feet, only to find the Ravenclaw had already fled.
He didn't dare to look at the howling Rosen as he ran from the bathroom as well.
Gabriel didn't know if he was going to cry or scream or vomit, but hasty strides took him down the corridor with a certainty his pounding heart didn't share.
He nearly hexed Flavia when the girl spotted him and ran to his side. "Gabe- Gabriel! What happened to your face!?"
"Go to your dorm, Flavia."
The doors of the Great Hall came into view.
His hold on his wand tightened.
"No, wait a second! What-"
When the girl grabbed at his arm, he spun around, yanking it out of her hold. "Go!"
The force behind the shout startled the both of them, and from where they stood, with only slabs of wood separating them from the dining student body, Gabriel could hear the usual cacophony of chatter.
Flavia's wide eyes stared at him for a beat, her resolve wavered, and she ran.