Although Gemma is able to evade serious punishment from the professors, she is caught up in the consequences of her own decisions. As she is defeated by a muggleborn, the other purebloods mocked her. Her faction is in shambles, her parents furious.
Moreover her reputation is ruined when the video is streamed through the Hogwarts forum, reported in Daily prophet and even gone through multiple channels of students in seer's orb.
( Author's note : Seer's orb is more like YouTube in this story. It's not official cannon and entirely my imagination )
Needless to say her hard work for five years was destroyed by a first year and the cause of all this are two people in her eyes. Draco Malfoy and Damian Knight. Although Damian did it, in her eyes, if Draco Malfoy hadn't pushed her to ambush that mudblood with her faction and then riled her up for a honour duel while cheating, she wouldn't have taken this hit.
But what she didn't know was that, even Draco is manipulated into doing this by someone. And that someone is from Evelyn Rosier's faction. Evelyn Rosier meanwhile had smile on her face. Now she can rip Gemma's faction bit by bit and integrate it into her gradually. The Rosier family can use this opportunity outside to made the House Fawley lose more business showing their despicableness and untrustworthy nature along with the ruined honour, the house Fawley will lose their business partners.
With her grandmother Vinda Rosier's schemes, she has no doubt, the Rosier family will gain more power, wealth and business outside now. She is very happy that her decision along with the gamble paid off so much better than she expected. Damian returned to his room and took a shower.
When he is studying a spell book, a message arrived in his magi-mirror.
[ Flowers thanks the swords for the stab to pests ]
[ Flowers warns the swords for the upcoming plague ]
Damian sighed at their amateur methods. The message is too weird for him to read and too obvious. There is trouble approaching. And they call him a sword like he is in their hands. Seems like she still thinks, she hold him for now. Damian will abandon her the moment this deal is done.
' so the Fawley's are going to make a move soon ', Damian looked at the message and then tapped the table thinking what their move can be. His obscurus is hidden even from the minister, unless Dumbledore himself reveal, there is almost no possibility of this getting out. Aberforth's identity itself is not known to many in wizarding world, so without obscurus what will be the move they can make, he is a first year they may target those around him, should he take precautions and warn them about this but in Hogwarts as long as headmaster Dumbledore is there, he won't let anyone harm his students openly.
If he is the target, he won't be afraid. In Hogwarts, Dumbledore won't allow his students to be harmed, so the logical conclusion is that they will target him with intent to expel him from Hogwarts, but the board doesn't have that power, that lies with the headmaster and professors decisions. So how are they going to expel him, prove he is using dark magic, no valid proof and their daughter herself used dark magic publicly, so no. what will be their next move, frame him into something that will guarantee his expulsion. He needs to stick close to others and made sure he has proofs that he isn't in whatever they're planning.
Damian thought of many ways which the Fawley's can use to expel him. Frame him for assisting a student, or frame him for endagering everyone in Hogwarts, or maybe frame him into a crime he didn't commit. Damian closed his eyes and decided to put himself in the place of Gemma and her father. He remembered all rules he read and run many plans in his mind to see which they will choose. So he can be better prepared with some common contingencies between them.
And he also thought of ways that can jeopardise those contingencies and witnesses. To face a conspirator you need to think like him first. What you will do to your opponent. But he is only a novice in this. These purebloods survived hundreds of years in this land with conspiracy and incest. He is no match for them in things like this.
He needs to extremely careful with the path he is going to tread next.
Meanwhile in another room, Rosier faction is gathered for a meeting.
" Are you sure you can hold him in a leash? ", one of them asked.
" I think he is too much of a wildcard. We can't trust him ", another one suggested.
" That's right Young Miss, you need consider your opinion of him ".
" He is far too smart to manipulate. He knew the conspiracies in our plans ".
" We can't properly use this tool. Better break it before it stabs us ".
" Yes, the Fawley's are already on this. Let's just give them a helping hand and this will be over ".
Evelyn who is slipping tea calmly just raised her head and said," and then? ", everyone fell silent and didn't understand," you forgot we're out of all ideas before this wild card you called appeared. Fawley's and Flints have too much connections and a solid reputation before ".
Evelyn put her tea cup down and said," and we still have Flints to weaken. Not to mention, Fawley still has some loyal members on her side to recover. We have a year till she stands up again for power struggle here in Slytherin and can any of you do what he can. If one of you can, I'll listen to your words and throw out the previous tool I can use till the end of this year ".
No one spoke after that. Can they beat Gemma Fawley. No way, they can't even beat her normally not to mention her using cheats. Seeing no one speak, Evelyn smiled," for now, Damian will be our option to get an upper hand in this power struggle. So until his use is over, don't give any suggestions that will backfire on us. The situation is already hot enough for us to bear. Let's just reap benefits for now before planning our next move ".