Chapter 7
The Quidditch Player
Matt's school days were hard the next week. He had never had homework quite like he was getting now. He was lucky to be with Lara most the time, or else he might have never finished. Peeves still seemed to be aiming his mischief at Matt, because his amount of accidents didn't slow. Snape was as horrible as ever. Even out of his own classroom he managed to find ways to take points away. He was having the same dream over and over, except he had Harry Potters scar for some reason. Matt was in a particularly sour mood when he came to the Great Hall on Wednesday, surprised to find so many people standing around something posted outside of it. Lara, Chris, and Megan were amongst the crowed.
"What's up?" he asked Lara. She pointed in front of her. "Broom flying lessons. I'm really excited. Dad never let me fly on a broom. Wonder what it'll be like. Only problem is that it's with the Slytherins." Matt groaned. He was beginning to hate the Slytherins as much as the rest of the school.
Flying lessons took place on Saturday, and people could choose whether or not they wanted to go. Not that this mattered. All the school seemed to want to go. When Matt came down from his dormitory on Friday morning, the whole common room seemed to be talking with stories about flying. Matt, who had heard enough of these stories already, left the common room and went down for breakfast. He sat down at the Gryffindor table, Lara wasn't there, nor did she arrive the whole breakfast period.
"James, have you seen Lara?" Matt asked in Prof. Binns class. "James! Come on, wake up." "Wha?" Have you seen Lara?" "What? Lara who?" "Lara Potter." James fell out of his chair. "You're friends with Lara Potter?!" James asked wide-eyed. Matt ignored him "Have you seen her?" "Uh, no. I didn't."
Lara came to History of Magic shortly after that conversation. When Matt questioned her on where she had been, she simply said she'd tell him after their classes.
"So," Matt began when they were working on their homework in the library. "What happened? Where were you this morning?" "You'll never believe this…" She had a huge smile spreading over her face. "What?" Matt asked, curious. "Well, Prof. Tweed, he's the Arithmancy teacher I think, he came to see me. He brought me down to the Quidditch field and gave me a broom. He let me fly it." She seemed to be trying to get to a certain point, she was saying all of this very quickly. She went on, saying how wonderful it was to fly, and how easy it was to her. "I'll bet. With a father like yours, I'm not surprised." She looked puzzled. "What's that supposed to mean?" Matt thought this was obvious. "Well, your Dad, Harry Potter, was the youngest Quidditch player for Gryffindor in almost one hundred years. Some of that must've passed on to you, I think. I can't be coincidence that you can fly just as good as he can." "But I don't know I can fly just as good as my Dad." Lara said, blushing. "I'm just, well, it came to me, that's all." "Right. Anyway, as you were saying." "Oh, yes." Lara explained how Prof. Tweed released a snitch for her to catch, and she caught it. What this meant to Matt he had no clue, until she said "Well, he told me to get off my broom and wait there. He went off to get someone I think. He came back with Prof. McGonagall, arguing with her for some reason. Prof. Tweed won, and" her grin went even broader "I'm playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch team!"
"Bravo" a highly sarcastic voice said from behind them. Matt and Lara turned around to see a second year boy with blonde hair. "Just what the school needs. Another Potter showing off." The boy said, eyeing Lara with unmistakable hatred. "What's your problem?" Matt asked bitterly. "Potter, of course. She should have never come here. Her father was unwelcome here as well. My father told me he did nothing but get into trouble." "And who might he be, your father" Lara said, anger in her voice. The boy smiled. "Draco Malfoy." He said flatly. Lara made a snort. "I don't believe that. If it's the same Draco Malfoy my father went to school with, you couldn't be his son. I was born not even a year after my fathers last term ended. If you were really his son, then you would have been born while he was at school." The boy made to say someone, but a girl came up and stopped him. It was Johanna Malfoy, the girl who was sorted into Gryffindor at the sorting. "You must forgive my brother. He has the unfortunate habit of being rude to people he is trying to make friends with." Trying to make friends with Matt repeated in his head. The boy turned away. "Why on earth would I want to make friends with mudbloods and misfits?" The boy demanded of her, backing several feet away from Matt and the rest of them. "A what?" Matt whispered to Lara out of the corner of his mouth. She didn't hear. She seemed to be throbbing with anger. Johanna gave a small gasp when the word 'mudblood' was mentioned. And without warning, an explosion happened in the space between Lara and the boy. Both Lara and the boy fell back onto their backs. Matt went to help Lara onto her feet, while Johanna went to help the boy. "Sorry" she mumbled to Matt. "I haven't made something explode by accident in a long time. Well, she didn't make anything explode, actually Matt thought. "Now look what you've done. You're always getting into trouble, Will." "At least I haven't disgraced our family by being a Gryffindor. Father is most displeased." Will shot back to her. At this, Johanna dropped Will, who she was holding up (he was not supporting himself at all), and walked over to Lara. "Well, great job Lara. Do me a favor," She looked at Will, who was standing again. "Beat Slytherin every year you're here." Johanna left. "Good luck, Potter. You'll need it. Unless you have your own broom, you'll probably be flying one of the school brooms, probably a Nimbus. Hate for you to make a fool of yourself on an outdated broom." He said sarcastically, and left the library.
"What's a mud-blood?" Matt asked, instantly. Lara stopped dead. But, despite herself, she let a small smile come across her face. "Well, although I haven't thought about it, I fear the word more then I fear saying Voldemort (the people in the library moved slightly at the name). Anyways, it's what people like that Will call people who have Muggle parents. They believe to be a higher class then most because they're purebloods, people who don't have any Muggle blood." Matt looked at her. "I think this is the first moment when the Wizarding world has been just as stupid as the Muggle one." Lara looked at him. "Is that an insult?" She asked. "No just an, uh… Observation."
Lara was missing more often then not from the Gryffindor common room. The leader of the Gryffindor team was insisting on constant practice. Lara had to deal with this and her normal homework. This made Matt feel almost glad that Peeves was the only other thing he had to deal with besides his homework. He had to wake Lara a few times after she fell asleep from exhaustion onto her homework in the common room. What really made Matt wonder how she could still keep her top grades and deal with the Quidditch practice.
"And when is the first Quidditch game?" Matt asked her in the common room after she had already given an answer, "I told you, a week after Halloween." "And he's making you work this hard?" Matt said, in disbelief. "She…" She said, correcting him. She was trying hard not to go to sleep after a particularly hard Quidditch practice. By what Lara had told him, it seemed that Lara had fallen asleep on her broom, and dropped about 10 feet to the ground. She hadn't been hurt, but she finally told the Quidditch captain that she couldn't do the obscure schedule she was doing anymore.
Matt was having his dream more often. But when he went to recall the faces he saw in his dream, he couldn't. When he told Lara about the details of his dream, she seamed worried. When he asked what was wrong, she said "Well, dreams can be sort of like a fortune teller, describing the events of the future. Dreams, especially repeating dreams, can give you information. Or perhaps someone might be trying to make you do something." Matt looked at her. "Oh come on. Are you paranoid or something? I'm not as important as you or your dad. Why would anyone be interested in making me do something?" Lara shrugged. They were spending their time in the Library with Chris, since Chris couldn't come into the Gryffindor common room. Chris had his own opinions about Matt's dreams. "Its possible to just have dreams that don't mean anything, you know." Chris said told them. "That's true. But this is different then any of my normal dreams. I mean it seemed real." Matt said. Chris snorted. "I had a dream that seemed almost real. A chocolate cake the size of a house fell on me. That doesn't mean that its going to happen any second. I say you should just forget about it." Matt raised his eyebrows. He did have a point. Lara raised her hands. "Alright, lets just forget this conversation. I don't want to be in a sour mood. I have Quidditch practice tonight." Drew and Robert entered the library then. They walked over to Chris. "Uh, Chris? Can we talk with you?" Drew said, sounding somewhat panicky. Robert looked much more relaxed, but was constantly looking back and forth to Lara. "Yeah, sure." Chris got up and left the table, following Drew and Robert. A sudden thought came to Matt. "Lara, what's the 'Child of the prophecy'?" Lara shrugged. "Nobody knows anymore. At first people thought it was Dad, but I think the person had to defeat a dark wizard while he was still a kid." Chris came back into the room, looking like he was on the edge of laughing. "What's so funny?" Lara asked Chris. It seemed Chris had gotten over the shock of talking to Lara because he responded without hesitating. "It's Drew. He gets worried about stupid things. Rob told him that the Slytherins were planning the throw dung bombs at you during the first Quidditch match. Ravenclaw against Gryffindor, right?" Lara ignored the question. "So, is there any reason that I should not be worried? Should I enjoy having dung bombs thrown at me?" She said angrily. Matt gave a small snort of laughter. Robert raised his hand. "Don't worry. I've got an idea of how to fix the problem." And Robert left. Drew followed him. Chris, Matt, and Lara all exchanged puzzled looks. "What'd you suppose he's going to do?" "Dunno. Probably blow up to stands." Chris said. "You can't be serious" Lara said. "No? You don't know Rob. He'd do it, if he had to." Chris put his books into his bag. "Well, I've got other work to do. See ya Matt." Chris left the Library.