Chapter 7: Flying Lessons

On Thursday, we discovered we had flying lessons with the bloody Slytherins, which meant we were going to be flying with fucking Malfoy.

"Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself." I said reassuringly. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

"But what if it isn't?" asked a worried Harry. "He is a rich git after all."

"You're a rich git too, Harry." I teased.

Harry smirked. "Whatever. What I mean is he probably had top of the line brooms and had been flying all his life."

"His bloated ego wouldn't allow him to get off of the ground." I said, rolling my eyes.

"And plus, he lives in the wizarding world. Can you fly?" asked Harry.

I shrugged, trying not to look too excited that I had been flying since before I learned how to walk. "Yeah. I guess I'm alright. I almost hit a hang glider once that Dad had on Charlie's old broom. That was fun."

We sat at the breakfast table munching on sausages. Dean and I got into a heated debate over some barmy muggle sport called ballfoot.

Wait, that wasn't right. Football. Yeah, that was it.

He tried to tell me that a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly, and they just kicked this ball around a field was much better bloody Quidditch. Had he sniffed fairy dust or something? No sport, be it muggle or wizard, was better than Quidditch. He showed me his West Ham poster. The players didn't even move! I tried a couple spells to try to make them flinch a bit. Nothing worked.

Hermione soon joined us (despite no one inviting her to) and began to bore us all mental with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Merlin, she irked my nerves. You can't become an expert at fly from reading some book, even if it's about Quidditch. You had to experience it. I got the impression that Hermione read about having fun more than she actually went out and had fun. Book were okay sometimes, but she read books as if that's what made her breathe.


Mail arrived and a barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmum. He opened it and showed us a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things. This tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red- oh... " he watched as the smoke in the Remembrall had suddenly glowed red. "... you've forgotten something..."

While Neville was trying hard to remember what he'd forgotten, Malfoy, who was passing by us, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.

Harry and I jumped to our feet. Finally. I had a reason to punch the little wanker in the face. Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall had seen and came up on us quick.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor." squeaked Neville.

"Just looking," he said, putting it on the table and walking away with his beef cakes.

Later, Harry, me, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. Perfect day for a fly. It wasn't too hot, the sun was shining, the breeze was right, and the sky was a wonderful blue.

Reality set back in that this was going to suck bollocks when we saw that the Slytherins were already there,

The teacher, Madam Hooch walked out onto the grounds. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a bloody bird or a cat. It was both brilliant and intimidating.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she said in a sharp voice. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Harry looked down at the broom as if it was a foreign object. I could have sworn that muggles at least used brooms.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front. "and say 'Up!'"

"UP" everyone shouted at once.

Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once. He looked impresses with himself. Hermione's had simply rolled over on the ground (the broom must didn't like her nagging voice either), and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Then again, Neville did say "up" as if he was scared of it. I was halfway tempted to whisper to him that it was only a boom, not a dragon.

Madam Hooch showed us how to mount our brooms without sliding off the end. She stopped and told me that my form was great, almost professional. While Malfoy, on the other hand, had been doing it wrong for years. For someone who had been on a broom before "he got off the boob", he certainly looked stupid.

10 points to Gryffindor.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard." said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle - three - two-"

But Neville, afraid of being left behind, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch could get a sound out the whistle.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted at him. Neville kept going higher and higher, screaming the entire time. He began to go into full panic mode and then slipped off his broom, hitting the ground with a very nasty thud.

Neville ate the dirt, his broomstick left and drifted over the Forbidden Forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch helped a crying Neville off the ground while the Slytherins and even a couple Gryffindors (traitors)pointed and laughed.

"Broken wrist." she said "Come on, boy, it's all right, up you get."

She then turned to the rest of us.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

Neville moved slowly beside Madam Hooch, crying about the pain in his arm. Poor bloke. He just couldn't seem to catch a break. And I thought I had rotten luck living with Fred and George.


As soon as she left, Malfoy went in with his usual teasing.

Bitch.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" laughed Malfoy, surrounded by his little crew.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" yelled Parvati.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin girl that looked like one of them little ass dogs with the curly tails that nip at your heels in the face. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."

Parvati sneered at the girl. Lavender, who had slowly became Parvati's best friend from the looks of it, stood beside Parvati in case she and her gang of ugly bitches tried something.

"Look!" said Malfoy as he lunged for something on the ground. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

Malfoy held up the Remembrall while his friends laughed even louder.

"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry, standing in front of Malfoy's face. The laughing stopped and it got quiet. I braced myself to jump in, in case Malfoy and his crew tried some slick shit.

Malfoy gave Harry a nasty smile. "I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find. How about up a tree?"

Give it here!" Harry yelled. Malfoy got on broomstick and took off into the air. Bloody tosser. He actually did fly pretty well.

"Come and get it, Potter!"

Harry grabbed his broom and mounted it.

"No!" shouted Hermione. "Madam Hooch told us not to move! You'll get us all into trouble."

Harry ignored her and took off into the air.

"GO GET HIM, HARRY!" I yelled after him, raising my fist in the air.

Hermione groaned and rolled her eyes. "You shouldn't encourage that, Ron."

I stopped cheering and glared at her. "Excuse me?"

"You shouldn't encourage that." she annoyingly repeated. "Harry will surely get in trouble for this. He is going to cost Gryffindor loads of points. Haven't the two of you lost enough points for us already?"

"Look, if you're referring to Snape, he was being an ass, okay?" I said. "He was even one to you, remember?"

Hermione looked at me like I had spit in her tea.

"You also shouldn't swear." she grumbled.

"There's no winning with you, is there?" I groaned.

"Look at Harry!" yelled Dean, pointing in the air.

Harry made a wicked dive after the Remembrall. He looked as if he had been on a broom for as long as I have. He caught it effortlessly and landed in the grass.

We all ran up to him cheering. That catch was the best I had seen since watching Charlie catch his practice snitch upside down.

"Wicked Harry!"

"That was brilliant!""

Nice catch, Potter!"

"HARRY POTTER!" rang a much older voice that silenced us quickly.

Professor McGonagall had seen the entire thing.

"Never in all my time at Hogwarts.." said McGonagall in an eerie whisper. She seemed too angry to form whole sentences.

"How dare you...might have broken your neck.."

"It wasn't his fault, Professor!" said Parvati.

"Be quiet, Miss Patil-"

"But Malfoy-" I began.

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley." said McGonagall, putting her hand up. "Potter, follow me, now."

I watched as Harry walked behind McGonagall, head low. I felt horrible.


Class had ended, and I was sitting back in Gryffindor common room watching the fire, thinking. I was worried like hell over Harry. What was going to happen to him? Would he be expelled?! He was my best mate. My first best mate and vice versa. I didn't think that neither of us would take it if he went home.

He didn't deserve to go back to that hellhole of the Dursleys. He had opened up to me more about them and they sounded like the worst lot of muggles you could ever meet. I didn't want my best mate locked away in a cupboard anymore.

"Have you heard from Harry?" asked Dean as he and Seamus came down the stairs for dinner.

"Not yet." I said. "I hope he hasn't been sent home."

"Yeah. That wouldn't be fair." said Seamus. "If it wasn't for that toerag Malfoy, he wouldn't have been in that mess."

I nodded.

"Come on Ron. Maybe he will be at dinner, you know? Gotta let a man eat his last meal." said Dean, attempting a joke.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Sod off, Dean."