In the days that passed, Jo was beginning to realize how much she hated Draco Malfoy. She didn't think it would be possible to hate someone even more than Dudley, but here he was, always ready with a rude comment to make about anyone and everyone, especially the Potters. Thankfully, the Gryffindors didn't have to deal with the Slytherins as much except for in Potions. But when Jo saw a new notice pinned on the Gryffindor notice board in the common room she gave a loud groan. The Gryffindors and Slytherins would be having flying lessons together.
"Ugh, can you believe it?" Jo said in annoyance. "Just another reason for Draco to make fun of me. Harry, don't you remember him bragging about flying at Diagon Alley?" Harry nodded, looking just as miserable as Jo felt about the news.
"He's probably not even that good," said Ron, trying to knock some reason into the twins. "All talk, if you ask me."
Jo had to admit, she was looking forward to learning how to fly but was pretty nervous about it. She kept hearing the other kids who grew up in wizarding families talk about their experiences of flying and it sounded wonderful. She was even more excited about the lesson because Lavender Brown was dreading it. Jo couldn't wait to see how she was on a broomstick.
And if Jo was nervous about these flying lessons, it was nothing compared to Hermione. Hermione, on the other hand, came back from the library with books and books about Quidditch.
"Hermione, I don't think a book can teach you how to fly," said Jo, the morning of their flying lesson at breakfast.
"Don't doubt the books, JoJo," Hermione said, not looking up from Quidditch through the Ages. Ron made a face at that, causing Jo to give him a kick under the table. Hermione then went on giving the Gryffindor table a lecture about flying.
Her lecture eventually came to an end with the arrival of the owl post. Jo sighed and went back to her breakfast. She'd have to visit Hedwig, she thought, because at this rate she'd never see her owl.
"Did your family send you candy too?" sneered a voice behind them. Of course it was Malfoy. "Oh, wait, I forgot... you don't have a family."
Jo was out of her seat and standing toe to toe with Malfoy. He stood a couple inches taller than her, but she stood her ground. He didn't scare her.
"JoJo, no!" said Hermione, grabbing ahold of Jo's arm.
"What's going on here?" Professor McGonagall came out of nowhere and now stood beside Jo and Malfoy.
"Nothing, Professor," said Harry quickly, pulling Jo to her seat. Malfoy smirked and walked away back to the Slytherin table.
That afternoon, Jo and the other Gryffindors hurried outside the front doors to the grounds for their first ever flying lesson with Madam Hooch. The Slytherins were already there, standing around a bunch of brooms on the ground.
Malfoy gave a little wave to Jo and she felt her fingers curl over forming fists. "Just ignore him, JoJo," whispered Harry, pushing her passed the Slytherins. Jo was furious. More at herself than at Draco, for letting him get to her so easily.
The Slytherins stood off to one side with brooms while the Gryffindors stood across from them with their own brooms. Jo placed herself in between her brother and Hermione as Madam Hooch came up between the two houses. "Good afternoon class," she addressed everyone. "Welcome to your first flying lesson. Well, what are you waiting for?"
Jo's eyes widen. Madam Hooch wasn't wasting a second now was she?
"Everyone step up to the left side of your broomstick," continued Madam Hooch. "Come on now. Hurry up. Stick your right hand over the broom and say 'Up'."
All at once you could hear the first years yelling 'up.' As soon as Harry said up, his broomstick jumped into his hand. "Woah," he said, smiling at Jo happily. Jo then looked over at Hermione. Every time she said up, her broom simple rolled back and forth. Jo looked across at Malfoy and with his broom already in his hand. If he can do it, Jo thought to herself, than so can she.
Jo took a deep breath, held her hand firmly over her broomstick and said, "Up." And just like her brother, Jo's broomstick flew right up into her awaiting hand. Jo had a satisfied expression on her face.
"How did you do that?" Hermione demanded, still having a hard time getting her broom to up.
"Like this," answered Ron. He had his hand over the broom and said 'up'. Instead of his broom landing in his hand, it flew up and hit him right in the face. Jo and Harry started laughing hysterically. "Shut up, you two," said Ron, but he found it just as funny.
When every finally had their brooms in their hands, Madam Hooch said, "Now, once you've got hold of your broom, I want your to mount it and grip it tight." Everyone at once mounted their brooms. Jo's nervousness was being replaced by excitement.
"You don't want to be sliding off at the end," continued Madam Hooch. "When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground hard. Keep your brooms steady, hover for a moment, then lean forward slightly and touch back down. On my whistle- three- two-"
Before Madam Hooch blew her whistle, Jo noticed Neville rising in the air on his broomstick. "Neville, no, get back down," said Jo quickly. "We're not supposed to take off yet."
Neville's broom was getting higher and higher, "Ah!" Neville shouted.
"Neville, what are you doing?"
"Mr. Longbottom," said Madam Hooch. "Mr. Longbottom, come down here right this instant!"
Neville had zero control over his broom. Within seconds he was flying away from the group and around the castle, screaming the entire way. Neville's broom took him for a ride across the grounds, twisting and turning in all sorts of directions.
As the broom got higher, Neville was starting to slide to the back of the broom. "I've got a bad feeling about this," Jo said to the others. And just then, Neville completely slide off the back of the broom and fell straight to the ground with a crack. Several students screamed as Neville hit the ground and didn't move.
"Oh my god!"
"Do you think he's okay!"
"I can't believe that just happened!"
"Everyone out of the way!" yelled Madam Hooch as she ran straight over to Neville and helped him up. Neville had tears falling from his eyes and he was holding his wrist in an awkward angle. "Oh dear, it's a broken wrist. Good boy, come on now." Madam Hooch stood Neville up an then stood and faced the rest of the class. "Everyone's to keep their feet firmly on the ground while I take Mr. Longbottom to the Hospital Wing. Understand? If I see a single broom in the air, the one riding it will find themselves out of Hogwarts before they can say "Quidditch." Then she led Neville up towards the castle, leaving the first years behind.
Malfoy starting laughing when Madam Hooch was out of earshot. Jo then realized that he was holding something round. "Did you see his face? Maybe if the fat lump had given this a squeeze, he would have remembered to fall on his fat ass." All the Slytherins were laughing.
Malfoy was holding Neville's remembrall. "Shut up, Malfoy. And that's Neville's," said Jo, taking a step towards Malfoy.
"Yeah, give it here," said Harry, moving in front of Jo to face Malfoy.
"No," said Malfoy flatly. "I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find." Then he got on his broomstick and flew around the rest of the class. "How about on the roof?" And then he was higher in the air. "What's the matter, Potters. A bit beyond your reach?"
Before Jo could even react, her brother was already on his broomstick getting ready to take off.
"Harry, no way," said Hermione quickly. "You heard what Madame Hooch said. Besides, you don't even know how to fly. Jo, help me out here." Hermione looked at Jo for backup, but she didn't get any.
Jo only shrugged and said, "If Harry doesn't do it than I will." She gave her brother one quick nod and Harry took off into the air.
"What an idiot," said Hermione under her breath.
Jo watched from down on the ground with the rest of her classmates. Harry and Malfoy were exchanging words that no one could hear. But Jo could tell that Malfoy was sneering the whole entire time. His face made Jo want to Malfoy threw the remembrall towards the castle, and everyone down below gasped as Harry sped off after it.
Jo watched with wide eyes as her brother flew closer and closer to the castle. "Oh I can't watch this," she said, covering her eyes. Then she heard everyone yelping and cheering all around her. "Hermione," Jo said, with her hands over her eyes still, "what happened?!"
All of a sudden, Ron pulled Jo's arms away and started jumping up and down, dragging Jo along with him. "Harry caught it before it the castle wall. He actually caught it. How did you miss that?!"
"Well I didn't want to see my brother fly head on into a castle," said Jo, looking up as her brother flew back towards the first years, holding the remembrall high up in his hand with the biggest smile on his face. As soon as Harry landed, everyone swarmed him congratulating him.
"That was wicked, Harry!"
"So amazing!"
"Good job, Harry!"
Malfoy landed a few feet away from the first years. Jo waved at him and gave the biggest smile she could muster. Take that, Malfoy, she thought. He only glared at her.
"HARRY POTTER!"
"Oh no," whispered Jo, her heart sinking. Harry's face had turned white and she couldn't blame him. Professor McGonagall was running towards the first years, the shock and anger all over her face. "Follow me," was all she said, and she turned back to the castle with Harry following her slowly.
Jo didn't see her brother again until dinner time and she was wreck. Hermione did a poor job at trying to console her about Harry being expelled. "Well, I told you to stop him but you didn't listen."
"Oh, come on," said Ron, "They're not going to expel Harry Potter."
"Who said anything about being expelled?"
Jo's head snapped up quickly. Harry sat down next to her, a huge smile on his face.
"Harry!" she exclaimed and gave him a big bear hug. "I thought McGonagall was going to expel you! She didn't, did she?"
"Nope, not expelled. Actually, she recruited me for the Gryffindor Quidditch team to play Seeker," said Harry.
"What?" said Ron, Jo, and Hermione all at the same time. Harry then explained to them what happened after he and McGonagall left everyone else.
"Seeker?" Ron said excitedly once Harry had finished his story. "But first years never make the house teams. You must be the youngest Quidditch player -"
"- in a century, according to Professor McGonagall," cut in Harry.
"Wow, Harry, that's amazing!" said Jo excitedly. "I can't wait to see the look on Malfoy's face when he finds out!"
"You can't tell anyone yet," Harry said quickly. "I start training next week and Oliver Wood, the captain, wants to keep it a secret."
"I can't believe you're on the Quidditch team," said Ron, still in disbelief.
Jo was so happy for her brother. To be the youngest player in a century was quite the accomplishment. She was more happy that he wasn't expelled honestly. But playing the wizard sport when you only learned about this world a few months ago, that was accomplishment within itself.
"I can't believe you're encouraging this," Hermione said shortly. "Harry's just really lucky that he didn't get expelled."
"Hermione, you're ruining the moment," Ron shot at her.
Hermione narrowed her eyes, packed up her books and walked straight out of the Great Hall without looking back. Jo looked at Ron. "Seriously? You could at least be a little bit nicer you know." Ron shrugged.
Just then, Fred and George sat down next to Harry. "Hey, well done, Harry. Wood's just told us," said George. Or it could of been Fred, Jo wasn't exactly sure who was who yet.
"Fred and George are on the team too... Beaters," said Ron.
"What do beaters do?" Jo asked, "Doesn't sound very nice."
Both Fred and George laughed. "Our job is to make sure that Harry doesn't get bloodied up too bad," said Fred. "Can't make any promises of course. Rough game, Quidditch."
"Brutal," added George. "But no one's died in years. Someone will vanish occasionally..."
"... But they'll turn up in a month or 2!" finished Fred. Then the Weasley twins laughed and walked further down the table towards their friends.
Harry had gone pale.
"Sure you still wan't to play?" asked Jo.
"Oh, go on, Harry," said Ron encouragingly. "Quidditch is great! Best game there is. And you'll be great, too!"
"But I've never even played Quidditch," said Harry, Fred and George's words still ringing in his ears. "What if I make a fool of myself."
"You won't, Harry," Jo said firmly. "Come on, I need to show you something." Jo led Harry and Ron out of the Great Hall. "I found this room the other day with Hermione and I found something. I was planning on showing it to you and I guess now is as better time than ever."
Jo had taken the boys into a room almost as large as a classroom. It was a room filled with trophy cases and plaques hanging on the walls of awards: The Trophy Hall. She led the boys over to the side of the room to a glass case filled with trophies.
"Look, Harry," Jo said quietly and pointed to one of the trophies. It was filled with names of previous Gryffindor Quitdditch players. And the name Jo was pointing at was none other than James Potter, their father.
"Woah, I didn't know your dad was on the Quidditch team," said Ron in shock.
"Me neither," whispered Harry.
"So you see, Harry," said Jo, "you won't make a fool of yourself, it's in your blood. Dad was a Seeker, and now you are too. You're going to be just as good, or better."
"Thanks, Jo," said Harry, giving her a side hug. "I really needed this."
On their way back to the Gryffindor Tower, Hermione caught up to them coming from the library. Jo fell into step with Hermione as the four were making their way back up the moving staircases.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" Jo asked her.
Hermione shook her head no. "No, not at all. I guess maybe I overreacted a little bit earlier."
Jo laughed. "Just a little. You need to relax a bit, Hermione. I know the rules are important and everything, but sometimes when jerks like Malfoys get in the way, you can't back down."
"What about jerks like Ronald?" Hermione muttered.
Jo sighed, "I know he hasn't been the nicest to you, but he'll come around, you'll see."
Just then, the staircase the four were on began to move. Each of them grabbed onto the railing to stay up right.
"What's happening?" asked Ron quickly.
"The staircases change, remember?" said Hermione.
The stairs took the four to another landing with a door. "Let's just go this way," said Harry, leading the other three up to the door. Harry pushed it open and lead the others into a dark, creepy corridor.
"Does anybody feel like we shouldn't be here?" asked Ron as the four walked further down the corridor.
"That's because we're not supposed to be here," said Hermione with an air of annoyance.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is the third floor corridor that Dumbledore specifically said not to enter," added Jo. "Which, I might add, we just did."
"Let's go," said Harry quickly. But as they turned around to go out the door, they were greeted by none other Mrs. Norris, Filch the caretaker's cat. It meowed at them and they all took a step back. She looked pretty evil to Jo.
"Um, we need to go," said Jo and she turned around and started running down the corridor looking for a place to hide or another exit. If Mrs. Norris was here, Filch wasn't too far behind. "Quick, let's hid through that door!"
Harry, being the fastest, got there first. He was pulling desperately on the handle. "It's locked!" he exclaimed as the others finally caught up to him.
"That's it. We're done for," said Ron in a panic.
"Oh, move over," said Hermione firmly. She pushed Harry out of her way and whipped out her wand pointing it at the lock. "Alohomora," she said and the door unlocked instantly. "Get in."
The four piled in quickly. "Alohomora?" Ron questioned Hermione.
"Standard book of spells, Ronald," said Jo, "Chapter 7."
"Like I actually read what we're suppose to," Ron muttered.
"We'll you should," Jo said, "how else will you learn."
"Shh, I'm trying to hear Filch," said Hermione with her ear against the door. Jo and Ron placed their ears on the door too. They could hear Filch's voice, and then nothing.
"He's gone," said Jo, with relief.
"Probably thought this door was locked," said Ron.
"It was locked," said Hermione.
"And for good reason," said Harry. Jo just realized he was standing a few feet away from them, starring at something right in front of them.
Jo's jaw dropped. Laying in front of them taking up most of the room was a giant, black dog. And if Jo wasn't mistaking, the thing had three heads. Two of them began growling, noticing the four children standing in front of them. The dog began to rise, showing how big it truly was and Jo started taking a few steps backwards, her back resting against the door. Ron, Hermione, and Harry stood there a moment longer before screaming their heads off, which made the dog even angrier. Jo quickly whipped around and opened the door, "Guys, run!" she yelled, and the others followed her back out into the corridor, just in time as the dog lunged at them. With a struggle, the four were able to close the door on the three headed dog. Then they ran all the way back to the Gryffindor common room as fast as they could, not looking back.
As they were entering the common room Ron said, "What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?"
"You don't use your eyes, do you?" said Hermione. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"I wasn't looking at its feet! I was a bit preoccupied with its heads," Ron exclaimed. "There were three, in case you didn't notice!"
"I noticed," Jo piped up, still catching her breath.
"How could you not?" added Harry.
"You guys," said Hermione quickly. "It was standing on a trap door, which means it wasn't there by accident. It's guarding something."
"Guarding something?" Harry asked confused.
"That's right," Hermione said crossing her arms in front of her. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worse, expelled." And with that she went straight up to the girl's dormitory without looking behind her.
"She needs to sort out her priorities," said Ron, Harry nodding in agreement.
"Never mind that," said Jo impatiently. "If that dog is really guarding something under a trap door, don't you know what that might be?"
Harry looked at Jo with confusion at first, but Jo could see the wheels turning. "The package Hagrid picked up at Gringotts!" he finally said.
"Exactly!" said Jo. "Remember what Hagrid said? He said there was no safer place than Gringotts except maybe Hogwarts. That has to be what the dog is guarding!"
"It definitely make sense," said Harry, agreeing with his sister.
"But what is it?" Ron asked and the three fell silent.
Jo bid the boys goodnight before returning to the girl's dormitory. She didn't know what that dog was guarding, but whatever it was, it had to be so important that Dumbledore would guard it with a 3 headed dog. It took awhile for Jo to fall asleep as her mind raced through different thoughts of what kind of object the dog was guarding. Why would something so small need something so big to guard it?
Thanks for reading! Reviews are welcomed. You could follow my twitter account for this story: lmf_121 for updates or to DM me. I plan on having a chapter ready to posted on Sunday, but Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is supposed to be delivered tomorrow and that's going to be my weekend right there (: Hope everyone has a Happy Friday and weekend ahead!