Time went by faster than they all wanted it to. The first week was over and they were having their very first flying lesson that afternoon. This was especially exciting for Rose who, both Al and Scorpius agreed wouldn't shut up about it.
Maddox on the other hand was just as elated as Rose was. They would spend most of meal time talking about it and discussing different tips and tricks to try. Max wasn't planning on trying out for the house team, but he did follow Quidditch constantly.
"Will you guys give it a rest." said Scorpius grumpily at lunch. "You've been talking nonstop since you saw the announcement on the notice board."
"Well your just in a sour mood." said Rose.
"I'm not." Scorpius replied stirring his eggs around on his plate.
"Yes he is." Al said.
"No, I'm not." Scorpius repeated more aggressively. He stood up from the table and left the great hall heading toward transfiguration.
Rose and Maddox looked at Albus.
"Scor got a letter from a neighbor friend of his back home." Al said.
"Apparently Scorpius' parents had a row the other night, some nasty things were said, it's just got him in a delicate state right now. Don't mention anything to him, okay?"
Rose and Max got back to their toast awkwardly.
Not long after that, the three of them were walking onto the grounds for their flying lesson earlier than most.
As they stepped onto the Quidditch pitch where they were to begin class, they first saw Scorpius lying in the grass in the middle. He was looking up at the sky and absentmindedly pulling grass from the ground.
The other three looked at each other, they didn't really have anything comforting to say, that was normally Scorpius' job. He was the one who pointed out the positive situations in the friendship so far.
Instead of standing above him and making it awkward, or yelling their arrival and interrupting his daydreams. They simply took to lying beside him in the grass without a word. This was a lot more comfortable than Rose had thought it would be.
Scorpius glanced over at them, then back up at the sky.
"My parents are getting divorced." he said tonelessly. "But I'd expect Al has already told you that."
"We just heard that they had a fight." said Rose.
"Mom said that if it wasn't for me she'd have left my dad a long time ago. Dad asked why doesn't she do it now then, that I'm old enough to understand. To that my mom told him to stop treating me like I'm a man when I'm just a boy. Long story short, I'll be coming home to my parents pretending to love each other for my sake. That is, if mom doesn't pack up and leave before then."
"Those are just words." said Al. "Just fighting words, they don't mean it."
"If I never came to Hogwarts, this might never had happened." said Scorpius gloomily.
"Don't blame yourself Scor." said Rose compassionately.
"Yeah Scor, don't be stupid." said Maddox. The others looked at him. Rose didn't think whatever was going to follow those words would be a good idea right now. She knew Scorpius liked Max and all, but he wasn't as close to him as Rose and Al were.
"I mean everyone always tries to blame themselves when something like this happens," Maddox continued. "when it's not their fault in the slightest. But what's blaming yourself going to do? Or blaming anyone for that matter? It's not gonna make you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside, nor is it gonna fix the situation. Whatever happens, happens and it's your job to find a way to deal with it better, to make the matter manageable. And I swear to you, blaming yourself will only make you feel like crap."
Nobody said anything for a moment. Scorpius opened his mouth to speak but heard a rumbling of feet coming nearer and closed is again.
A small group of Gryffindors came to stop above them.
"What are you doing?" asked one of the girls.
"We're waiting for Madam Hooch." replied Maddox.
"We're supposed to wait on the ground?" one of them asked stupidly.
Max nodded lazily and the other students laid down on the grass beside them apprehensively. Max looked at Al and they both tried not to laugh. A group of Slytherin first years came a moment later.
"We're waiting in the grass for Madam Hooch. " said a Gryffindor in reply to the Slytherins faces.
Soon around thirty students were all laying in the grass in an even row waiting for their instructor. Thirty students not counting Alexis Micherl who wouldn't dare lay in the grass, ("The contamination!")
They all soon heard hurried footsteps striding across the ground.
"What are you all doing? Get on up and form two lines facing each other." It was Madam Hooch. She was an elderly witch with short, grey, spiked hair and eyes like that of a hock. She took her wand out and waved it furiously.
"Accio broomsticks!" she called, and a moment later, thirty broomsticks were zooming through the air and landed next to each student.
"Flying!" she called. "Is a very popular source of travel. It may be more difficult to some of you than for others, but trust me when I say that it will get easier the more you practice. There is a way to see if you will be a good flier before you even mount your brooms. You must simply hold your hand above your broom and shout, Up! This must be with feeling and with confidence. If you broom jumps into your hand directly, then you will have nothing to worry about, if it takes a few tries, then you will simply need to practice hard. Go on and give it a go!"
All of the students held their hand above their brooms and shouted "Up!" Rose's shot straight into her hand, and so did Al's.
Maddox yelled twice before he was able to grip the broom – it had wobbled up slowly as if apprehensive – and Scorpius shouted the first time, the broom just rolled over, then he screamed the word with a thunder in his voice that made everyone else jump. And the broom shot into his hand a lot harder and anyone else's broom did. Scorpius did not look pleased like the others had; he had fire in his eyes and still looked furious.
His friends gave sideways glances at one another.
One Slytherin boy had yelled the word again and again but nothing happened. Everyone else in the class was already holding their broomsticks and waiting on him. Until finally Madam Hooch had to stride over, hold her hand above the broom, and cry "Up!" herself, and give the boy the broom.
"Alright!" She shouted. "Now that we all have our brooms, I want you to mount them, not to close to the handle or you'll slide off." she waited for everyone to do this. "When I blow my whistle I want you all to kick off from the ground hard, hover there for a moment, lean forward, and touch back down, do you all understand?" there was a nod, then she blew her whistle and everyone did as was instructed.
Rose and Al both did exactly as she said, except both Rose and Al hit the ground harder than they meant and Al toppled over. Maddox did well, but went too high, and Scorpius did perfectly.
The whole class was waiting while Madam Hooch was forced to help the Slytherin boy get into the air. The fact was, he was so large both in height and in weight, that he was having difficulty jumping. Rose tried not to watch, she could imagine how embarrassing this must be for him.
Finally, he succeeded in, very sloppily, elevating on his broom.
Madam Hooch had them preform a series of simple tasks. She had them hover above the ground on their broom for thirty seconds, then to one by one take a turn around the pitch. Madam Hooch flew below each of them in turn in case they fell. Luckily no one did, except for the Slytherin boy whose name ended up being Relctory. He made it about five feet before rolling upside down on his broom and falling two feet to the ground. He was brought to the hospital wing because he was saying that his back hurt. He left red faced beneath gales of laughter from the other students. Rose didn't find it at all amusing and gave Maddox an angry stare because he was smiling at it.
They each took turns flying around the pitch higher and higher until they were Quidditch distance above the ground. Scorpius preformed every task perfectly and Rose was disappointed to see a frown on his face. His parents were evidently still on his mind. She had hoped that flying would wipe all thought from his head, that it would clear his mind and be freeing, or maybe flying only did that to her. They finished flying class, the four friends feeling rather good about themselves, well three friends, you couldn't count Scor.
His bad mood lasted for most of the day and no matter what the others tried to comfort him with, didn't work. Rose was becoming very annoyed with his moping. She didn't say anything of course because that would make her sound insensitive. But one member of their gang being upset would put a damper on everyone else spirit's too.
The next day was Sunday and with a roar of what sounded like wind, a hundred owls came swooping in to drop letters and packages among the students during breakfast as they did every morning. Rose received a letter from her mom in response to her past letter explaining why she was caught out of bed at night with a boy.
Since she didn't have much of a choice given the circumstance, she had lied, and told her parents that she had been visiting Hagrid and lost track of time and had met Maddox on the staircase because he had been sending a letter. She assured her dad that he was a Gryffindor and that she wasn't doing anything wrong. Then she used reverse psychology on them, reminding them of all the times that they were out of bed. Her mom's letters content just said how as long as she was with Hagrid and she had met Maddox on the stairs that she wasn't in too much trouble. And not to try and guilt them with past mistakes.
Rose had told Hagrid about the lie and asked him to please stick to that story if Ron or Hermione came asking. And it was only with her big pleading eyes that he reluctantly agreed.
It had been nearly a week since then and Scorpius had managed to finally cheer up. Classes had become very interesting and mostly enjoyable. They all really liked Professor Dalbert and the class was positively shocked to find out that he was forty-six rather than thirty as many of them had thought. Rose had done the math and figured out his age when they had been discussing Filtch the night they had gotten detention; but she was no less surprised by the sum.
"I take good care of my skin." was his explanation in response to their stunned faces. A couple of girls sighed.
Astronomy was every Wednesday night. Then there was History of Magic, Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and potions which they had found Al to be very good at. Scorpius was dreadful and always emerged with soot in his face.
They were all in pretty high spirits until Professor Dalbert had asked Maddox and Rose to stay after a particularly fun D. A. D. A class where they had learned to cast their first disarming spell.
"I need a word about your detentions." He said sitting back down behind his desk. "Firstly, great job you two. Your disarming spells were some of the best I've seen from students your age." Rose beamed at him, Maddox looked torn between being pleased at the compliment or sour toward the detention.
"You don't have to give me that look Mr. Vladimir." Said Dalbert. "It's not like I want to give you detention, you students seem to think that teachers find pleasure in only punishment and the destruction of your lives; that's not true. But even so, they will be held tomorrow evening in the kitchens, you will be cleaning the ovens. It's not too bad. Filch was trying to get me to have you clean his office. But I value the health of my students too much for you to have you go in there. You may go."
They stood to leave.
"Oh, and I wouldn't wear your uniform, it may get messy."
They left the office surprisingly cheerful.
"Well the ovens aren't too bad." said Maddox. "We'll get to see the kitchens. Of course we already knew where they were, but now we can see them up close without getting into trouble. Should be cool."
"I hate cleaning." Rose mumbled.
"Well nobody enjoys it, do they?" he replied now turning down the corridor toward the portrait of the fat lady.
"Neat freaks and perfectionist?" Rose suggested.
"They enjoy the results, not the task itself."
"Your starting to sound like me. Urfretties." said Rose and the portrait swung forward.
"Now you see how annoying it is?" Maddox said.
Rose hit him over the head with the back of her hand jokingly.
"Actually, I found it quite refreshing."
They set themselves on the floor in front of the fire, the two cushy armchairs were already taken by James and Tyler who were tossing marshalows into each other's mouth.
Rose began taking out her homework and books.
"You are coming to see me tomorrow?" she asked.
"See you do what?" he asked ". . . Oh. Yeah, of course."
Tomorrow was the Gryffindor and Slytherin try outs and despite what Rose had tried to convince the others, she was quite nervous.
"You know what? I don't think that they want first year trying out for the house teams. We only get one flying class before. Scorpius said he's trying out for Slytherin. I think you should try for Gryffindor. It would be great for both of us to be on the same team." Rose finished filling her quill.
"Nah, I'm more of a watcher anyway. Besides if I join the team, Gryffindor will lose their biggest cheerer. Also if I try out, it would be a smaller chance of you joining too. Rose, will the try outs merge with our detention?"
"It shouldn't." she said. "Tryouts are at three tomorrows. And Slytherins are right after so we may even get to watch Scorpius fly."
Homework was progressively getting more difficult. Rose was very good at studies, but unlike her mother before her, she didn't enjoy it at all. She and Maddox met up with Al and Scorpius in the Library every evening.
"I hate Potions." Scor was saying while flipping through a book titled 200 Unappreciated Magical Substances.
"Of course they're unappreciated, they are pointless!" he said slamming the book shut and replacing it on the shelf.
"No they're not." Al protested. "Besides, potions are fascinating. It's just like cooking except with really gross ingredients. How can anyone dislike throwing a bunch of scrap into a pot and creating something new?"
"Someone who's creation blows up in their face." said Scorpius looking annoyed at Al's enthusiasm. "Literally. And I have never cooked anything in my life."
Al looked surprised. "Never? But it's wonderful!"
"Al loves to cook." said Rose. "And if you're working on Monday's homework for Professor Killpii, your looking in the wrong section of books."
"Where do you suggest I look then?" asked Scorpius evidently frustrated.
"Right here." Al answered pushing the book that he had been reading from across the table toward Scorpius. "Page 66."
"Astronomy though." said Maddox in awe. "Fascinating isn't it?"
"You think?" asked Al. "I find it rather dull. I mean I enjoy the stargazing part, but I can never find any of the constellations and the homework is a nightmare."
Maddox just shook his head.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts is my favorite so far." said Rose not looking up from So you want to Fly?
"I like Professor Dalbert yeah." said Scorpius. "But I can never tell if he's being sarcastic or serious."
"If you think he's being rude, it's probably sarcasm." Rose replied. "He's very real, not at all like the other teachers. He talks more like he's an Uncle than a Professor."
"Is there any class you enjoy?" asked Maddox peering outside the window of the library toward the sky consulting his Astronomy book.
"Yes," Scorpius replied. "Transfiguration."
"Least favorite?" asked Maddox again.
"Oh, History of Magic of course!"
There was a loud murmur of agreement including a third year Hufflepuff from three tables away. Maddox tore his eyes away from the stars and groaned.
"And it's not like we can hope for a new Professor either." said Albus. "Because the guy's dead isn't he? It's not like he'll want to retire or go on vacation to the beach or anything."
Rose amused herself for a moment imagining old, dead Professor Binns on the beach trying to tan.
