A/N: Please review and share! I hope you keep enjoying it and thankyou for reading :)
The first years were all pleased to discover, on the Monday of their second week, that a notice had been pinned up in their common room, informing them that they had flying lessons that afternoon and would be with the Ravenclaws.
"It doesn't mean on brooms does it?" Naveen asked his tone sceptical.
"Ofcourse it does. What else would we fly on?" Andrew replied, his tone completely serious. Cara sniggered.
"Next thing we know, we're going to be cackling and painting ourselves green," she said quietly to Naveen, behind Andrews' back, as they headed down for breakfast.
"Biggest weakness will be water."
Andrew had no idea what they were laughing about, and to his increasing annoyance they continued to make Wizard of Oz jokes for the rest of the day.
"My grandma played for the Holyhead Harpies. Both my parents helped Gryffindor win the Quidditch Cup when they joined the team. My older brothers all played for the team when they were here," Ariana told Cara later, as they sat in Charms.
"So basically, I have to be a natural flier and get onto the team next year, or I'm screwed."
"At least you've been on a broom before. I will have no clue what I'm doing."
"Plus we're learning with the Slytherins. And everyone knows the Quidditch rivalry between us is massive. Like I don't have enough pressure."
Cara patted her arm, "Good luck I guess."
Cara felt excited as the students made their way to the grounds, where their flying lesson would be held. The students lined up in two rows, facing each other, each with a broom lying at their feet. Cara's excitement fell away to slight trepidation as found herself in between Connie, who looked terrified at the prospect of flying and on the other side, a skinny Ravenclaw boy with messy dark blonde hair who was visibly shaking. Luckily, Minette was standing directly infront of her, and the girl's face was completely calm, so Cara decided to focus on that. An extremely old witch stood at the front, whistle around her neck, Cara thought she looked far too old to be safe on a broom, but when she spoke, her voice was sharp and clear.
"I'm Madam Hooch! I want you all to stand by your broom, stick your right hand over it and shout UP!" Cara did so, and she was glad when the broom obeyed her orders and like Minette's opposite her, jumped into her hand. On either side of her Connie and the Ravenclaw boy's brooms remained firmly on the ground. Madam Hooch gave the unsuccessful a few more tries before giving up and telling them to just pick them up. She then told them all to mount their brooms and walked up and down their rows, correcting their grips.
"Now, once I blow my whistle, kick off the ground, hover for a few moments, then come back down by leaning forwards a little." She then gave a sharp blow on her whistle and the students all kicked off with various success. The Ravenclaw boy beside her actually did pretty well until he lost his grip and swung upside down, landing heavily on the floor. Cara hovered as instructed, feeling a strange mixture of both fear and exhilaration as her feet left the floor. She tipped her broom forward and sank back to the floor. She found that Connie was exactly where she'd left her.
"At least try Connie. It's really not that bad." Connie didn't say anything, simply eyeing the Ravenclaw boy who spat out some blades of grass.
"It wasn't that bad was it?" Cara supplied to him, her eyes indicating to him the answer she expected.
"Nope, totally fine. Just need to get my balance right is all."
But Connie still refused to leave the ground and Madam Hooch didn't press her, simply rolling her eyes like she was used to people like her.
Once the more competent fliers had all successfully learnt how to rise and return to the ground, Madam Hooch allowed them to rise a couple of feet higher and actually perform a few laps on the ground, strictly in pairs, with her following closely behind just incase. Cara was paired with Minette and when the girls discovered they were both equally good fliers, they began an unspoken competition, each trying to get just a little higher and faster than the other. Madam Hooch didn't stop them; in fact she almost encouraged it and patted them both heavily on the back once they soared to a stop.
"Brilliant girls, I expect to see you at Quidditch try-outs next year after more practice," which made the girls grin happily at each other.
"That was awesome!" Cara said ethusiatically as the others tucked into their dinner, later that evening.
"Yeah, you already said," Andrew said, who hadn't been very good at flying.
"A million times," Naveen added, who had. "Though it was," he concurred.
"How come we can't try out this year?" she asked him, but it was Minette who answered.
"We could. But the older years have way more experience than us, we'd not even make the bench."
"We'll just have to practice loads this year," Naveen said.
"This is the first time we've actually been better than the Ravenclaws at something you know," Valerie noted, looking past their heads at their Ravenclaw counterparts, with a sense of victory in her tone.
"Not all of us," Connie said quietly, her tone dejected. Cara knew she should be sympathetic, but she found she couldn't feel very sorry for a girl who hadn't even tried. Minette held no such qualms and put a reassuring arm around the tiny girl's shoulder.
"Nevermind, everyone's different."
"Exactly, I mean, you're definitely the best at Transfiguration from all of us," Andrew added. The other first years added other complimentary words to make her feel better, which made Cara feel extremely guilty, remembering that as a Hufflepuff, she was supposed to be kind. The moment passed however, before she could chime in with anything.
As the weeks rolled by Cara was so comfortable she realised she hadn't even thought once about her past life in London. It seemed like another world to her now, that life had belonged to a different person. Here she was a smiling, confident young witch, with plenty of friends, academically gifted, even if she was no genius. She laughed to herself as she remembered her earlier fears that she didn't belong at Hogwarts or in Hufflepuff. She grew close to Naveen, who shared her snarky outlook on a lot of things though was on friendly terms with everyone in her house. The girl's often stayed up late in their dorm, talking and laughing about the various goings on at Hogwarts, or joined the boys in the common room where they snacked on food from the kitchen's which the House Elves had almost thrown at them, they were so eager to give them it. She also remained firm friends with Ariana and the twins, Ada and Patrick, as they shared plenty of classes, so had plenty of opportunity to talk.
The only downside she had was Felicity Weasley, who insisted on barging violently into her every time they passed each other in corridors, coupled with a rude remark about her appearance or upbringing. Cara didn't retaliate anymore like she did the first time, knowing she had faced a lot worse than a spiteful bully and decided that Felicity might give up if she got no reaction. Close to Halloween time, her plan paid off and Felicity stopped her aggressive corridor tactics.
Unfortunately however, she didn't stop completely and instead transferred her bullying to someone whom she thought would be a better target. When Cara witnessed her go barrelling into the tiny Connie, she rushed over to her immediately. She helped her pick up some of the books that had spilled out of her bag. Naveen was beside her, picking up some quills. When Connie straightened, Cara was dismayed to see the tears that were making their way down her pixie face. The girl sniffed as she put the books back into her bag.
"Thanks guys," she said, her voice a little shaky. "It was my own fault; I shouldn't walk so slowly I guess." Cara was surprised at the quiet rush of fury she was feeling. The Gryffindor girl had done the exact same thing to for several weeks, but somehow, seeing it happen to her shy friend, the anger was a lot stronger. She heard the snickers of students that had been standing nearby and whirled around.
"Don't you have places to be?" she snarled, tone aggressive. The students, though older than her, immediately began walking away. Cara had her offensive side down to pat, it was a good way to scare off unwelcome attention if it was dark and she was still walking around on the streets.
"Of course it wasn't your fault Con," Naveen said to his friend, his voice kind, giving her shoulder a squeeze. "Those girls are just bullies. Don't let them get to you."
"It's okay. Being this small means I've always been a bit of a mean girl target. I'm used to it."
"Well you shouldn't be," Naveen said resolutely, "They don't deserve to get away with it."
"I didn't care when she did it to me. But she's gone too far this time," Cara said, scowling in anger, "No one hurts my friends and gets away with it."
"What will you do?" Naveen asked, a little sceptical. "She's older than we are, probably knows way more spells, and her group is bigger and tougher."
Cara raised her eyebrows, "there's more than one way to skin a cat," she said cryptically, but didn't elaborate, leading the way to their charms classroom.
From then on, as the Hufflepuffs walked the corridor, they made sure to shield Connie with their own bodies, walking protectively around her. Cara smirked at the annoyed look that crossed Felicity's face when she saw them, and brushed slightly past her as the two groups passed each other. When Felicity had vanished around the corner, Cara raised her hand, spinning a wand with her fingers.
"Where'd you get that from?" Valerie asked, looking surprised. Cara looked down at the wand, like she'd only just realised she had it.
"I saw it on the floor, I guess someone dropped it."
"I didn't see you bend down," Andrew said, looking unsure.
"You should give it in to a Professor," Thomas said.
"Nah, whoever lost it will find it eventually. Here, catch," and she threw the wand into the open mouth of a gargoyle statue as they passed it. The gargoyle reacted almost instinctively, its mouth closing sharply around the wand, which splintered a little in its strong stone grip.
"Cara! What if it breaks?" Connie looked worried.
"You won't break it will you?" Cara asked the gargoyle, mock concern in her voice. The gargoyle opened its mouth to answer, dropping the wand, which rolled into the dusty corner between the statue and wall.
"Oops," the gargoyle's voice was deep and croaky.
"Oops indeed," Cara's eyes glittered and she hurriedly ushered her friends along, before they started asking more questions or became too morally uptight. They complied, because she spoke with a sharp, no-nonsense tone. Only Naveen remained beside her, and he looked at her now, frowning.
"That was Felicity's wand wasn't it?" Cara didn't answer, simply following after her other friends, towards their common room.
"How on earth did you get it? I was right next to you and I didn't even see you touch her." Cara still refused to reply.
"Cara, I know you're angry with her about Con. We all are, but stealing her wand, that's going a bit far don't you think? How on earth can she do anything without it."
"I haven't stolen it Naveen. She's just lost it is all."
"She'll blame you first when she notices it's missing you know."
"So? No one can prove anything. They'll find her poor wand gathering dust in a corridor she walked down once. I certainly didn't do anything."
"It's still a bit mean…" he said uncertainly. Cara shrugged, unsympathetic, not swayed from her conviction.
"No one messes with my friends." Was her simple reply and Naveen decided to leave it, feeling deep down, that though he may not agree with her methods he did completely agree with her sentiment.