Disclaimer: I make no claim to the rights of any characters that are owned by J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros., and make no money from this venture. This work is purely for entertainment purposes.
— CHAPTER ELEVEN —
The Grounds
Professor McGonagall had seemed rather surprised when Harry and his friends came to her with an idea to help a fellow student with their studies. However, because they had such noble intentions, she decided to grant them permission to use a disused classroom located on the second floor whenever they thought it was necessary. Within reason of course. She told all of them that if she found out that the room was being used for the wrong reason, any wrong reason, they would not only not be allowed to use it any longer but they would also receive detentions. All four agreed quickly and left Professor McGonagall's office to find the room in question.
When they got there and opened the door, they were surprised to see that the room was clean. There were some tables and chairs remaining from whenever it was that the room was last used, but there was no dust at all and the chalkboard was clean and new chalk was sitting on the larger teacher's desk, waiting to be used. The room must have been out of use for a long time as Harry found a very old, leather-bound book with the date 1848 written on the very first page in the drawer on the teacher's desk. He flipped through the book and found that seemed as new as the day that it had been left there. The title was Wuthering Heights and was by someone called Ellis Bell. Harry had never heard of it, but put it in his pouch nonetheless.
Though Harry and Draco had been enthusiastic about helping Neville, it was Hermione who truly got into the spirit of the thing, as she had worked out everything that they were going to do. As well as helping Neville out with his classwork, she decided that they could all spend time attempting to learn from things other than their textbooks. In particular, she suggested the book Harry had bought due to Professor Quirrell's suggestion, Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes. Harry knew that most of the spells in the book were far and away too difficult for them to perform as a First Year, and some of them might even be too difficult for fully trained witches and wizards. He had, however, gotten a few of the smaller spells to work for himself, one of which being the Undetectable Extension Charm that Quirrell had used to expand Harry and Draco's pouches.
This spell, according to the book, had faded out of use as someone had created a spell that did the same thing, but also worked on much larger objects. Even though the old spell was much easier to perform, the newer one was largely accepted into society because of its effectiveness and, the book theorised, because the primary users were the people selling the objects who wanted higher sales and, so, didn't want everybody being able to do the spell themselves.
Harry had specifically tried to learn this spell as he had bought two pouches at the beginning of the year, one for Hermione and another which was originally intended to be for Ron but which would now go to Neville. Harry had approached Gryffindor prefect, and Ron's older brother, Percy about how he could buy things from Hogwarts given that he couldn't leave. Percy had informed him about how to use the Owl Post to buy whatever he needed and Harry did so immediately. He had yet to work out the charm to separate the extended pouch into easily discernible sections, and figured that if he couldn't work it out, he could always go to Quirrell.
Despite them not being finished, Harry had decided to give the pouches to Hermione and Neville, both of whom were stunned to receive any gifts from Harry for seemingly no reason and both had offered to get him something in return, which Harry had flatly refused. He explained that he just wanted to do something nice with the money had had to spare. There was the added bonus of the looks of jealousy and contempt from Ron who saw Harry give the pouches away. Harry knew that he shouldn't have, but he felt glad that these gifts were causing Ron some distress.
Harry was rather glad to be shot of Ron, all things considered. He much preferred Neville's company to his. Harry had also recently told Neville everything that he had spoken about in Dumbledore's office. Much to Harry's surprise, Neville reacted rather well. Where Draco had been angry and Hermione had been upset, Neville just seemed to take it all in his stride, doing nothing more than nodding. When they finished talking, Harry didn't know what to think of it. It had been some days later that he eventually talked to Neville about it.
"Are you okay with everything I told you the other day?" Harry asked as the Common Room was emptying. It was down to them, a few Seventh Years and Percy Weasley. "I mean, it's just that the others had bad reactions."
"No, I'm fine," Neville said, looking thoughtful. "I had similar experiences, that's all. Nothing as bad as all that, but similar enough. You remember I mentioned Great Uncle Algie?"
"Yeah," Harry replied.
"Well, the things he did to force magic out of me were pretty bad," Neville said. "He could have killed me. I think his heart was in the right place, but he's still family. I think going through that, and everything else that my family said about me during that period, made me different. Hermione and Draco … they never had to go through all of that, really. You and I did. Frankly, I was just glad someone else had the same sort of thing happen."
They didn't talk much after that. When Neville eventually went to bed, Harry sat and thought for a while before going upstairs, finding Neville sound asleep and then laying in his own bed, looking up at the ceiling for what seemed like a very long time.
The first Obstacle Course was fast approaching, so Harry and his friends were working hard, both on helping Neville get up to speed with everything that he needed to know as well as going over things for themselves. For an hour a day, Harry, Draco, Hermione and Neville went to their classroom and practiced whatever they needed to brush up on. Harry was surprised at how enjoyable these sessions actually were and he relished the time spent in that classroom.
Since it worked out that they were each proficient at different things, it all worked out rather well. Harry was good at Defence Against the Dark Arts topics, and so he helped the others with that. Hermione did the same with Charms and Transfiguration, Draco with Potions and Neville with Herbology. History of Magic was mostly avoided due to the fact that even Hermione found that particular class dull. It helped that there were no real practical applications, so it was unlikely to pop up in any of the Obstacle Courses. Astronomy was also omitted for the same reasons. Neville was only doing badly with the practical side of things, anyway, so it made sense to focus primarily on that.
By the end of their first session, with Harry's help Neville was able to penetrate Hermione and Draco's shield charms with his colouring spell, with the blue actually being very similar to the shades that Hermione and Draco were achieving. Neville was ecstatic and Harry hoped that this would somehow be a big enough boost for Neville to gain more self-confidence and improve in other areas.
Professor Quirrell had been teaching First Year students how to do the Disarming spell in classes the week before the first Obstacle Course was due to happen. In class, Neville was able to perform the spell weakly, but Harry thought he could do better. So, in the last session prior to the Obstacle Course, he worked with Neville solely on that.
"You've got it mostly right," Harry explained, after Neville was able to almost disarm Draco, though Draco was able to clutch his wand before it left his hand. "Hermione reckons you've got the incantation right, so it must be the wand movement."
"What do I do, then?" Neville asked. Harry was pleased to note that his voice was no longer tremulous or downtrodden like it was when they began these sessions. Though he still didn't sound confident, it was a step in the right direction.
"Watch what I do very closely," Harry said, taking Neville's place and aiming at Draco, who was standing in front of some cushions that Professor McGonagall had given them after an incident with the levitation charm landed Harry in the Hospital Wing. "Watch my hand, not my wand."
"Okay," Neville said, his eyes clearly on Harry's wand hand as Harry took a stance.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted and a red bolt left his wand and struck Draco, who fell backwards as his wand flew through the air, landing on the floor across the room, narrowly missing Hermione's head, causing her to look up from her book.
"That's what I've been doing," Neville insisted.
"Okay, just do the hand movement," Harry said. "Not the incantation, just the movement."
Neville nodded and pointed his wand at a wall. Harry watched as he did the movement.
"I think I see the problem," he said quickly. "There's a very small flick at the end of the movement that you're missing. Like this."
Harry did the movement again with his wand. He did it a second time, exaggerating the flick.
"Try it again and try the flick," Harry said. Draco reassumed the position again and Neville pointed his wand.
"Expelliarmus!" he cried. The red spell hit Draco in the chest and his wand went flying.
"Good work!" Draco said with a grin. He had managed to keep his footing, but the spell had still worked.
"Spot on, Neville," Harry said, patting his friend on the shoulder.
"Can you do it again?" Hermione asked quickly. "I was reading and I missed it."
"How about you take my place," Draco said. "I'm getting tired of getting spells thrown at me, anyway."
By that lesson, Neville had also managed to levitate objects, though his spell was the weakest of the four. He was also moving along with his Transfiguration work. He was still having trouble with Potions but he was nowhere near as bad as he was before. It was well accepted that Snape was the cause of all of those particular problems. Snape had not let up since they arrived at the school, and Harry and Neville, for whatever reason, seemed to take the brunt of his anger. They often had points deducted and were given detentions seemingly arbitrarily. Nobody could work out why Harry was targeted in particular. Neville, at least, was bad in class. Harry was passable, and yet Snape seemed to simply hate him.
As well as the extra sessions, they also had a great deal of homework to be done and they also were participating in flying lessons. For Harry and Draco, flying lessons were a breeze, so much so that when they had their very first lesson even Madam Hooch mentioned that he was a natural. Hermione and Neville, on the other hand, weren't faring so well. Hermione seemed to worry constantly about falling off, while Neville was even worse as he was deathly afraid of heights. In the first lesson, Neville had panicked, flown too high in the air and lost control of the broom, crashing right into the ground, breaking his wrist in the process. Of course, the Slytherin contingent of Zabini, Nott and some others found this hilarious and, as a result, Hermione had to restrain Harry and Draco, sometimes even physically.
Zabini and Nott were becoming quite the annoyance to Harry and his friends. They appeared to be constantly making snide remarks about them all, whether it be to their faces or behind their backs. One such time happened just a few days prior, when the two had run into the four of them in one of Hogwarts' many hallways.
"If it isn't Potter and Malfoy," Zabini sneered as Crabbe and Goyle seemed to block any escape routes. "Oh, and their pets, of course."
"Look, we kind of don't have the time for this," Harry said exasperatedly. "I'm sure you've got something real smart saved up to say to us, but could you maybe save it for some other time?"
"We'll say what we want, when we want," Nott said menacingly. "And you'll like it."
"I find that hard to believe," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "What is it this time? I'm an orphan? Draco's a Gryffindor? Hermione's a Muggle-born? Neville's a Squib? Done all of those ones, I'm afraid."
"Speaking of you being an orphan," Zabini said with a smile. "I heard something about your father the other day. My mother heard it through the grapevine years ago what your father was actually like. An arrogant, self-serving bastard to the very end. Never cared about anyone, so they say. I mean, his body was found outside of the house, wasn't it? Trying to run, I suppose. Left you and your mother alone to die, I expect."
Harry moved to run at Zabini, but Draco and Neville each grabbed an arm and held him back.
"Ah," Zabini said with a laugh. "Yes. The old Muggle fighting technique. All arms and legs, isn't it? Of course you'd be that uncivilised, Potter. Your mother was Muggle-born after all. That'd make you uncivilised, arrogant and self-serving, wouldn't it? I'd hate to be one of your friends."
"I'd hate to be them even if they weren't friends with Potter," Nott said with a smirk, looking from Harry to Draco, Neville and finally Hermione.
"So basically just the usual insults then?" Draco quipped. "What kind of Slytherins are you? Aren't you meant to gather information about your enemies and use it against them? All you have is information that either everybody knows or is untrue. You need to try better. Maybe ask Crabbe and Goyle. They look like they've got some rather good ideas."
At just that very moment, Professor Quirrell rounded the corner and asked why they were all congregating together in an otherwise empty corridor. The Slytherins just scoffed and walked away, so Quirrell looked to Harry.
"Nothing we couldn't handle, Professor," he said. Quirrell just nodded and walked away from them without a further comment.
Since the mention by Dumbledore, Harry had been to see the Groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, a few times. After the first few times, he found himself heading there, not out of a feeling of obligation but because he had grown fond of the over-large man. Often Draco, Neville or Hermione would accompany, but until the day before the Obstacle Course, all four of them had not been together. They had all walked down to the hut after Harry received a letter from Hagrid that morning.
"So, Harry," Hagrid said, pouring the group some tea, "Tomorrow yeh have the First Obstacle Course? Yer ready for it?" Harry nodded and looked at his large, bearded friend.
"Yeah Hagrid. I think we are. We've been practising heaps in our classroom. I think we could be tough to beat," Harry said before turning to Neville. "Neville's been brilliant the past two weeks. He's improved a lot. He's almost caught up in Defence and Charms, which is great given how behind he had been," Harry patted Neville on the back as the round-faced boy blushed at the praise given to him.
"I would never have been this good if you all hadn't have helped me," Neville said in a quiet, shy voice.
"Nonsense," Hagrid boomed with a smile. "You woulda got there eventually Neville. Yeh just had a push is all. Yeh'll do great. I know yeh will. All of yeh." Hagrid pointed to each of the group. Hermione beamed like she did whenever a teacher had praised her. Draco nodded and had a small smile on his face. Neville was still blushing and Harry smiled and watched the three of them.
The conversation continued for another hour with topics ranging from classes to Quidditch and it wasn't long before Zabini and Nott were mentioned. Harry told Hagrid what the two had said about his parents. Hagrid was, predictably, outraged.
"They were only right about one thing," Hagrid said as he calmed down. "You are like them. In the best possible way. I knew yer parents better than most, and I see them both in you. Even if you didn't look like yer Dad, I'd see him in you."
Harry smiled at that.
"Gran used to talk about your parents," Neville said suddenly. "Apparently our parents were friends. She said we even played together when we were babies. I never heard a bad thing said about James or Lily Potter whenever she spoke about them. And Gran's hard to please, trust me."
Some time, and a rather substantial amount of near-inedible food, later Hagrid wished them good luck for the next day and Harry walked with his friends back to the castle where they had dinner, finished up some homework and went to bed, all four thinking about the first Obstacle Course. Harry didn't feel particularly worried about it. Until he woke up the next day.
After they all got ready, the group made their way nervously to the Great Hall. While there, Dumbledore made an announcement stating that no one who was to be involved in the First Year Obstacle Course could leave the Hall, as they were not allowed to see the Hogwarts Grounds. Nothing else was said on the matter as the Hall slowly emptied but for the groups of First Years participating. One team was taken out of the Hall and was already doing it, and Harry, Draco, Hermione and Neville were told that they would be going second.
The first team to tackle the Obstacle Course consisted of Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode. Given what Harry had seen of them in classes thus far, he didn't think that it was likely that they would do particularly well. He guessed that they might stumble on Charms and Transfiguration. Only Zabini was really good at those. Nott seemed to be alright at everything while Parkinson and Bulstrode were good at some, but not others. Harry had also decided that if there was anything that involved using their minds in any way, they would likely stumble as well.
Harry sat with his stomach churning lightly. The entire Hall seemed to be silent as they all nervously awaited whatever it was that was to come. Around forty-five minutes after the first group left, McGonagall re-entered the Great Hall with a remarkably impassive look on her face. As she walked towards him, Harry's heart began to race. He looked at his friends. Hermione and Neville looked nervous, but Draco looked composed. Harry knew this was a front, however. Inside, Draco was just as nervous as everyone else.
Bad thoughts seemed to flood into Harry's mind as McGonagall approached. What if I make a fool of myself? What if I fail? What if something happens to my friends? Harry knew that his worries were irrational, but he couldn't stop himself from thinking them.
"Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy, Mr Longbottom and Miss Granger. Your group is next to face the Hogwarts Grounds Obstacle Course. Please follow me and I will give you information on what you will have to do today in order to complete the course," Professor McGonagall said to her House students before beckoning them to follow her.
They all walked nervously to the Transfiguration classroom and sat in chairs at the front of the classroom, close to where McGonagall was standing. All four looked at each other before giving their full attention to the intimidating Professor standing before them.
"Today's course will consist of seven different areas, each designed as a test for a particular subject. The subjects covered today will be Transfguration, Potions, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Creatures and Flying," Draco and Harry grinned at the last one while Hermione and Neville grimaced slightly. "There is a set order in which you have to complete these 'obstacles' but you will only be told what is first, Transfiguration. Each Obstacle Course is designed differently, so do not think that they will all be in the same order as this one.
"This particular course is a simple 'complete this task and you will be given another one' course. If at any time you find the course overly difficult, you may give up and your time will be recorded up until that point. You may still win the round as some may not get as far as you in such a short amount of time."
All four were listening intently as McGonagall spoke to them. "Now, to your first task that you must overcome. I will escort you to the grounds and you will choose a tree. You must then get a leaf and successfully turn it into a rock. Each of you must complete this to move on. When completed, I will tell you where to go and who to meet there. Understood?" McGonagall received three excited nods of understanding. "Good. Well then, let's get moving."
McGonagall lead them to a tree in the middle of the Hogwarts Grounds and said, "Start!"
Much to Harry's surprise, he saw a sudden flash of red on his hand. When he looked, he saw that a timer had begun, and was stating that less than five seconds had passed. Harry didn't have much time to pay attention to this as he went straight for a bright green coloured leaf on the ground, pointed his wand at it and said, "Mutatio Petra," and in no time the bright green leaf had transformed itself into what almost seemed to be an emerald but was, in fact, a rock with the colour of the leaf. Harry showed McGonagall quickly and she took it and nodded. Harry quickly took a look at the time and saw that it had been less than forty-five seconds. Harry knew this was a team effort so he went to where Draco and Neville were working on their leaf. Hermione, not shocking Harry at all, had completed this well before he did.
Draco was doing something wrong with his wrist movement, which was tracing a semi-circle. Harry quickly showed him how to do it and it worked. Neville on the other hand was a much more difficult student. As Draco went to McGonagall to give her his transfigured rock, Harry walked over to where Hermione was helping Neville. Harry heard Neville mispronouncing the words and saw his wrist movement was off. Hermione was focusing on the words and, when Neville got the words right, Harry began to work on the wrist movement as he had done to help Draco.
"Just move your wand like this Neville," Harry said demonstrating the semi-circle wrist movement. Neville tried, saying the incantation as he went, but his leaf stayed the same. Harry noticed something subtle about Neville's wrist movement and grasped the struggling boys hand and did the movement with him to show him what to do. Harry did this three times before allowing Neville to try on his own with the actual spell. This time it worked and Neville let out a relieved sigh as he moved to Professor McGonagall with a smile on his face.
"Okay, then. That's all four done. You must now move on over towards Hagrid's hut where you will meet Professor Sprout who will inform you what your next task is." McGonagall, seeing the proud look on Neville's face allowed a small smile and motioned them away.
As they ran towards Hagrid's hut Harry checked the time. Two and a half minutes had passed since they started the course. Not bad, he thought to himself, inwardly smiling. They could see Hagrid's hut in the distance but standing in their way was what seemed to be something akin to a corn field, and standing in front of this was the dumpy little witch Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher.
"My, that was quick," Sprout exclaimed as they neared where she was standing. "Well, I won't hold you up any longer than I need to but I will tell you all that you must get through this field of plants, which I cannot tell you the name of, in order to move on to Hagrid's hut. Now go!"
Neville let out a gasp as if something had just dawned on him.
"I think I know what this plant is. I read about it in the textbook before school. Angius Gramen." Neville's eyes were wide as he looked at the tall, moving plants which seemed to be all manner of bright colours. He looked around himself and found what he hoped he would. Picking up the fallen tree branch he looked at the other stunned member of his group. Harry was amazed at Neville. Herbology really was his calling. "I can use this stick to test whether it is what I think it is."
"Well, hurry it up then Neville. We're against the clock here," Draco said impatiently and Neville just nodded, not offended in the slightest at the blunt comment. The next moment Neville through the stick towards the plant, making sure that it was close enough to them that they could see what was going on. Harry let out an audible gasp as the plant attacked the stick, almost as if the plant was a snake. The stick snapped into pieces with a loud crack. Draco stared and Hermione had gone pale. Harry just gaped while Neville looked thoughtful. It wasn't long before Neville had picked up a larger stick and looked towards Hermione.
"Hermione, you know the spell for lighting objects on fire, right?" Hermione nodded still looking pale. "Use it on this stick, on the end so we can use it like a torch," Neville said purposefully. Harry caught a glance at Professor Sprout who seemed unable to contain her pride that Neville knew what to do.
Hermione stared for a second and then pointed her wand at the end of the stick and said, "Lacarnum Inflamarae" and a small burst of flame came from the end of her wand and lit the end of the stick and Neville quickly took it and walked towards the plants.
"Stay close to me. I'm pretty sure that fire is the only thing that scares these plants into not attacking. Since I can't see any more sticks and I really don't want you to get poisoned you will have to stick close to me," Neville said with a hint of pride in his voice. Hermione ran over to Neville and grabbed his arm. Neville blushed and Harry and Draco chuckled and moved towards him.
Harry had no idea whether Neville was right or not but he did trust the short boy considering this was to do with his best subject. The smile from Sprout helped as well. But still, there was a part of him that worried that it wasn't right. In his mind's eye, he saw Hermione being bitten by the Angius Gramen while Neville and Draco were being strangled. The images he had conjured in his mind scared him and he really had no idea what brought them on, but he did know that he definitely did not like them. He looked at the boy wielding the tree branch which was now aflame. Neville looked calm, as if he had done this his whole life. Neville's calm helped Harry to feel at least slightly calmer.
As they approached the snake-like Angius Gramen Harry felt his heart begin to race. Harry looked to Neville who still had a slightly shaking Hermione hanging off his arm but he was looking straight ahead. Just before they reached the Angius Gramen, Harry unconsciously began holding his breath. When they finally reached the edge of the area covered by the plant Harry heard a strange screech coming from the direction of the plants and then Harry watched as the snaky plants shrunk away from the heat radiating from Neville's fire covered stick.
Harry let out the breath he was holding and heard Hermione do the same. He also heard Draco mutter, "Thank Merlin." Neville then spoke up in a more confident voice than Harry had heard come from his shy young friend.
"We need to keep moving," he said, walking forward. "We don't know how much area the plant covers and the fire probably won't last long. We need to move."
All three nodded quickly and began to move as a group so as to not get caught by the plants springing back to life behind them. Harry really wasn't paying attention to how long they were in there, he just wanted to get out. When they finally reached the other side, Neville dropped the stick and Hermione quickly put out the fire. While he was doing that, Harry checked the time which now read eight and a half minutes. Luckily Hagrid's hut was so close they didn't have to run.
When they entered the hut, they heard a strange high pitched laugh coming from a corner of the hut. Hagrid was nowhere to be seen so they went to investigate the noise. When they reached the source of the laugh they saw a small blue, winged creature playing with a rag that Hagrid had apparently left somewhere. When it saw the four of them it dropped the rag and started attacking larger objects. Draco let out a snort.
"Cornish Pixie. Not a big deal. Looks like this is the creature task. Maybe we have to catch it?" Draco asked no one in particular and no one in particular was surprised to hear Hermione answer.
"Seems that way, doesn't it?" she said. "But how exactly do we do that? It is pretty fast so we can't use our hands. Are these creatures common in the magical world?"
"Not in particular," Neville answered in a small frightened voice. Harry wondered what made Neville scared of a pixie but not a snake-plant. "But I have seen Gran deal with one before. But I can't remember the spell. I know it stopped it from moving ..." Neville trailed off and Draco took that as his cue.
"I know how. I've seen father exterminate them from the Manor before. Not too hard," he said, drawing his wand and pointing it towards the blue Cornish Pixie which was now resting on the kitchen bench. "Immobulus!"
There was a small blue light and then the laughter ceased. Harry looked over to see the blue pixie had been caught mid-flight and was floating slowly away. It looked stricken as if it knew what was going to happen when Draco pointed his wand at it. Harry let out a little laugh and went forward and grabbed the small, insect-like Cornish Pixie out of the air. "So, where do we find Hagrid?"
As if on cue the big man burst through the front door of the hut and was soon standing in front of Harry.
"Alrigh' there Harry? Neville? Hermione? Draco?" Draco's name was said with less vigour than the others but was friendly nonetheless.
"Not meaning to be rude Hagrid, but we're in a bit of a rush," Harry rushed, handing over the frozen pixie. "We really need to know where to go next. We'll come and see you when everything is done for the day."
Hagrid nodded, beaming under his large overgrown beard.
"O' course. Yer need to go to the Quidditch Pitch. Madam Hooch'll be there to greet yeh. Off with yeh now!" Hagrid said cheerfully looking at the four young faces who instantly bolted out of the front door. Hermione and Neville were far less fit than the other two so they all decided that Draco and Harry would move forward to the Quidditch Pitch and Neville and Hermione would catch up at their own pace.
Harry bolted towards the massive Quidditch Pitch with Draco alongside him. Harry wondered what they would have to do there. Obviously flying, but what sort? I hope it isn't a group thing. Neville still isn't confident enough on a broom and Hermione still can't stand it, Harry thought worriedly. But his thoughts could not be continued as he and Draco reached the Pitch and soon made their way to the middle where Madam Hooch was standing. There were four brooms laid out in front of her and Harry's heart fell.
"Where is the rest of your group?" Madam Hooch asked sternly.
"Catching up with us," said a near breathless Harry. "Not as ... fit."
Madam Hooch snorted with some derision at the heavy-breathing boys and began to tell them what was expected of them.
"You will not all need to participate in this, good thing too, the way Longbottom and Granger fly," she said, slightly annoyed. "Anyway, you need to each take a broom if you are going to fly and get in the air. I will then release a Golden Snitch which you will have to catch in order move on. If you fail to catch it within thirty minutes I am afraid I will have to fail you. Now grab your brooms if you would!"
Harry and Draco both stood over a broom and shouted, "UP!" and the brooms both obliged and shot up into each boy's hand. They soon were off the ground waiting for the Snitch to be released. Harry thought being in the air was amazing. He loved the feeling of the wind in his hair and the sun on his face. He also loved the thrill involved with flying. It was almost as if he had flown his whole life.
Despite all of this, he felt that he would be relying a lot on Draco to capture the Snitch, as Harry had never had a chance to catch a Snitch or, in fact, play Quidditch at all. Draco had told Harry that his father had his own private Quidditch Pitch which Draco often played on for practice. Draco said, while he was good at all positions, he preferred Chaser. He was best at Chaser because he found it easy to manipulate the Keeper into thinking he was going to do something that he wasn't going to do.
Harry noticed a tinge of nervousness cross Draco's face as Madam Hooch released the golden ball. When it was released Harry and Draco met in the middle of the pitch.
"You cover the far end of the pitch," Draco said pointing behind Harry. "I'll take this end. If you see the Snitch, catch it." Harry nodded.
"Can do, Draco," he said and Draco promptly took off. Harry stayed still for a moment but was soon on the move. Harry found his eyes scanning his entire area and looking for even a hint of gold. While he was looking around he noticed Neville and Hermione show up. Hermione was white-faced until she talked with Madam Hooch, then she got colour back. Madam Hooch had obviously explained that she didn't have to fly in this part of the Obstacle Course. Not shockingly, Neville chose not to fly either.
Harry caught a quick glance of Draco who was searching around the far end of the Pitch diligently and Harry felt like he was not trying hard enough so he looked around even harder. This seemed to pay off as, about a minute after refocusing his efforts, Harry saw a flicker of gold near the grass beneath him. Without even thinking, Harry shot downwards towards the Snitch. By the time Harry realised that he was hurtling towards solid ground at a speed which could kill him, he couldn't stop himself.
As if by instinct alone, Harry pulled upwards on the old school broom. At first, the broom seemed almost reluctant to do what he wanted, but it eventually gave in and he levelled it out just moments before he would have crashed into the grass below and chased down the flying golden ball with an outstretched right hand.
It seemed as if the Snitch was constantly out of his grasp but he found himself edging closer and closer. As soon as his fingers wrapped around the cold gold of the Snitch Harry felt a sense of pride like he had never felt before and soon found himself staring at the Snitch. Quickly snapping himself out of his reverie, Harry made his way to the ground and dismounted his broom. It was only then that he noticed two things. The first was that he had a grin plastered on his face that felt as if it would never leave. The second was that his heart was absolutely pounding in his chest. Harry attributed this to almost killing himself.
Before long Hermione found her way towards him very quickly.
"Harry!" she said angrily, hitting him on the arm. "You scared me half to death with that!" Harry was still smiling broadly and after a moment Hermione reluctantly smiled as well.
After he shook hands with Draco, who only looked mildly annoyed that he had not caught the Snitch first, Madam Hooch made her way over to him, a look of awe on her face. Harry gladly handed her the snitch and she told them to go to the entrance courtyard for their next obstacle. While they were leaving, Harry heard her say, "I will definitely have to have a talk with Oliver about that one. Amazing."
When they neared the courtyard, Harry checked the time which now said they had been going for nearly seventeen minutes. Harry wondered whether that was good or not. When they reached the courtyard, Harry noticed a large cauldron in the middle and next to it stood someone who most definitely was not Professor Snape.
The man stood next to the cauldron had prominent, pale gooseberry coloured eyes, and an enormous, silver, moustache that Harry thought was similar to that of a walrus. He was short and round, with silvery balding hair. Harry had never seen the man before but he assumed he had something to do with Potions as this was the Potions part of the Obstacle Course. Harry did not have to wait long to find out who the man was.
"Well, hello there, students," he said, his eyes flickering straight to Harry. He looked Harry right in the eyes and Harry saw a tinge of sadness flicker in the man's eyes before they flickered upwards, towards Harry's scar. "My name is Horace Slughorn, formerly the Potions Master of Hogwarts. As Professor Snape had some, shall we say, reservations about participating in these courses I will be supervising all of the Potions aspects of the Obstacle Courses, at least for the younger students, this year. You may call me Professor, if you so wish.
"Your task for today is to observe the cauldron in front of you as well as the ingredients scattered around it. All the ingredients needed for this particular potion are there. What you must do is identify the potion correctly and add the final ingredient. Once you have done that you can move on," Harry noticed that during the whole speech Professor Slughorn had not taken his eyes off of him. He did not have much time to think much about this as Slughorn said, "Well get a move on then."
Hermione and Draco made their way quickly to the cauldron but Harry and Neville were not as interested. The others were far and away the best at Potions in the group. Harry and Neville still tried to help but Draco and Hermione ended up doing all of the work simply because they were better at it. Harry and Neville had no problems with this in the slightest.
"Hermione, you are better at the theory and I'm better at making them so I think you should try to analyse it first," Draco said while examining the already made potion. Hermione nodded and looked at the ingredients on the ground intently. She and Draco were silent and Harry took in the ingredients. A vial of bat blood, horse hair, a rat tail, goosegrass, cinnamon, moondew, porcupine quills, beetle eyes, sophophorous beans and silverweed.
Harry was struggling to piece this together at all. He looked from Draco to Hermione who both looked deep in thought. Neville was simply staring at the cauldron as if it was frightening to him. He looked genuinely scared of it. Harry looked at Neville and smiled encouragingly but didn't trust himself to interrupt either Draco or Hermione.
A few minutes of thought later, Hermione gasped.
"Breathing Potion," she said, looking to Draco.
"It is," Draco said, clearly wishing he had thought of it. Draco grabbed the final ingredient which was, if Harry was correct, cinnamon. Hermione nodded, but looked apprehensive.
"Are you certain this is the right one?" she asked.
"Not definitely, no, but it is what I remember," Draco replied. "You and I both think it's the right one, so I'd say it's more likely right than wrong, wouldn't you say?"
"I suppose," Hermione replied.
"We don't have much to lose anyway," Draco said, putting the cinnamon into the potion calmly, while Hermione breathed in sharply. There was a low hiss that came from the cauldron and a sudden loud clap from behind them.
"Correct!" Shouted Professor Slughorn happily. "Absolutely correct! Well done Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy. Now, on to your next obstacle. You don't have far to travel for this one. Just go down that way," Slughorn pointed to a trail to Harry's right which led down to an area Harry had not been at Hogwarts. "Professor Flitwick should be there. Congratulations! Move on now!"
The four First Years nodded and promptly took a right and went out of sight. Twenty-two minutes had now passed and Harry felt they were going well. It didn't take long to find Professor Flitwick standing next to a large boulder. The boulder was, at the very least, three times as tall as Professor Flitwick and about six times as wide. He was smiling broadly at the four Gryffindors as they got close to the small Charms Professor.
"Good show getting this far," Flitwick squeaked when the group was close enough for him to be heard. "I won't keep you for too long. All you have to do is levitate this boulder. Underneath the boulder, you will find a piece of parchment telling you where to go for your final test." With that he left and hurried to a spot further away.
Harry decided to attempt it first as he was able to levitate heavier things than the others in practice.
"Wingardium Leviosa," he muttered as he did the swish-and-flick motion. The boulder lifted slightly off the ground but not enough for anyone to get the parchment. Harry stopped the spell and looked at Hermione. "What do we do now?"
Hermione started pacing, obviously beginning to think. In the meantime, Draco decided he would try to levitate the boulder but he had less success than Harry did. Neville did the same but was unable to lift it at all, but not for lack of trying. Just before Harry tried something he remembered something that he read in his Charms textbook.
"Hermione. Can't you combine the power of some charms to make them stronger?" Harry asked quickly with a smile. Hermione's face lit up.
"That's right, Harry!" she said, smiling. "We haven't done it in class yet but you can do that with some charms. Wingardium Leviosa is one of those charms. I think it is, at least." She looked thoughtful again. "We will need one person to grab the parchment, which leaves only three of us levitating the boulder. Neville?" She turned to face the unhappy looking boy.
"Mmm?" Neville replied, obviously still feeling bad that he couldn't even lift the boulder.
"Do you think, if Harry, Draco and I lifted the boulder, you could slip under and grab the parchment?" Hermione asked in her nicest tone and even added a look which made Harry have to stifle a laugh.
"I guess so Hermione. Can you hold it for long enough though? Don't wanna get squashed," Neville said nervously.
"I don't know to be honest," Hermione replied. "We can only try."
Neville visibly gulped but nodded. Harry, Hermione and Draco lined up, pointing their wands at the boulder in front of them. They all seemed to take a breath at once before shouting, "Wingardium Leviosa!" to which the boulder floated upward about six feet, easily allowing Neville to pass under.
The fact that the sharing of the spell worked was not the only amazing thing that happened as Neville cautiously navigated his way underneath the boulder. Harry could feel something within himself that felt entirely foreign to him. It was a rush of emotions. Not only could he feel what he felt when the boulder lifted, but he also could feel relief, happiness, focus and concern within himself, and not one of them felt like they had emanated from himself. While ensuring that his mind was still focused on keeping the boulder afloat, he looked to Hermione and Draco, both of whom wore expressions of surprise much like his own and then Harry could feel it as well. It was as though a wave of something passed through him. Yet, the spell did not so much as waver as Neville retrieved the parchment underneath.
A few moments after Neville moved out from underneath it, Harry, Hermione and Draco stopped the spell, causing the boulder to land with a massive thud. The moment the boulder hit the ground, the emotions other than his own that Harry had felt seemed to disappear, leaving Harry feeling somewhat lost for a moment. He looked at Hermione and Draco and saw similar expressions on their faces. Neville, however, just seemed confused.
"Hey guys, you alright?" he asked with some concern and relief in his voice. "You look a bit off."
Harry and the other two shook their heads and muttered that they were fine and looked at Neville expectantly.
"Oh! That's right," Neville said embarrassed. "We have to go back to where we started where we will find Professor Quirrell. That's the last one."
With that they took off in the direction that was where they had transfigured leaves into rocks. Harry noticed that they had been going for twenty-seven minutes now and they were doing quite well. When they reached the tree, they found Professor Quirrell looking off into the distance with an uninterested look on his face as if he was not really there. It was eerie. Harry was the one who had to talk to him.
"Uh ... Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked hoping that would be enough.
"Wha ... Oh. Right," Professor Quirrell stammered as his eyes came into focus. "You got this far, did you? Interesting. For my task, one of you will need to defend yourselves against my disarming charm. Only one of you needs to actually do it, but you may each try if you so wish."
"Um ... Okay Professor," Harry replied before looking towards his friends. "You want a chance first or should I just go?"
Draco, Hermione and Neville all voiced their opinions that Harry should just get it over with because he was far and above the best at shield charms out of the four of them and if he couldn't do it then none of them could. Harry could see no fault in their logic and swiftly silenced them with a wave of his hand. "Okay. I'll do it." The others nodded smiling slightly. Harry turned to face the Defence Professor. "Okay Professor, take your best shot."
Professor Quirrell nodded and readied himself and counted down.
"Three ... two ... one! Expelliarmus!" he shouted.
At the same time Harry shouted, "Protego!" as the red blast hurtled towards him. Harry watched as the red ball of energy bounced off of his shield and headed directly back towards Quirrell who did a silent and very different shield charm himself which absorbed the spell. Quirrell looked surprised but said, "End Time!"
Harry watched as the timer on the back of his hand stopped on twenty-eight minutes and fifty-three seconds. Harry felt very proud at that but wondered if it was truly enough to beat the other groups. He was certain they had beaten Nott and Zabini at least, which made him feel incredibly happy but the other groups were far more adept than Zabini and Nott's group. He decided that there was no point in wondering about what the other groups were doing, and decided to simply celebrate with his friends.
They were all dismissed and told they could go anywhere they wanted within Hogwarts as long as they stayed away from the Grounds and the Great Hall. They went back to Gryffindor Tower and spent the afternoon there doing homework, lazing around and generally enjoying each other's company.
The next morning at breakfast the results were announced. They went through all of the older years first, something that Harry really detested, as was feeling anxious to discover how his group had performed. Harry looked around the Gryffindor table at his three teammates who all looked as anxious as Harry felt. Hermione was paler than usual, Draco was wringing his hands and Neville looked positively sick. They were all relieved when Dumbledore finally came to the first-years.
"And last, but not least, the First Years! They did their Obstacle Course on the Hogwarts Grounds yesterday and I must say, they did a spectacular job for a group who have not been at Hogwarts very long. There were five groups that competed yesterday, all of whom did extremely well. In fifth place," Harry's heart began to race, "was the group consisting of Megan Jones, Wayne Hopkins, Zacharias Smith and Helen Verity who made it to the fifth obstacle before succumbing to a tricky Potions test."
"In fourth place was the team consisting of Justin Finch-Fletchley, Leanne Moon, Padma Patil and Parvati Patil, who also made it to the fifth obstacle but eventually succumbed to the Potions task as well. They did, however, complete the other tasks before the fifth placed team." There was some light applause for this group while Harry began to feel inwardly relieved.
"In third place was the team consisting of Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode. They all made it to the sixth obstacle but stumbled on the Charms aspect of the course." There was snickering heard around the Great Hall except from the Slytherin table where Harry saw groans escape a lot of their lips.
"In second place," Harry's heart began, once again, to race, "was the team consisting of Terrence Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Lisa Turpin and Anthony Goldstein. They made it all the way to the end but could not complete the final obstacle, the Defence Against the Dark Arts obstacle. I must say, however, that many of the older years would have had trouble with that particular obstacle as well," Harry inwardly cheered. They did it. They actually won! Not only that but Dumbledore all but said that Harry was better than some of the older years. Harry was ecstatic. When he looked at his friends he smiled broadly. He saw Draco reach over and pat a stunned Neville on the shoulder. Hermione then hugged both Neville and Draco before turning to Harry and hugging him.
The hug seemed to go longer than the ones for the other two, and when Hermione let go of Harry, she seemed to blush a little, though Harry wasn't entirely sure why. He looked towards the podium near the Teachers' table and saw Dumbledore smiling at them, his blue eyes sparkling immensely.
"It seems as though our winners have already begun celebrating but I must carry on. In first place for the First Years was the team consisting of Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. Congratulations!" He shouted amongst the roar of applause.
Harry, Draco, Hermione and Neville spent the rest of their breakfast, and a lot of the day, being congratulated by everyone, it seemed, except for the Slytherins and Ron Weasley.
Despite all of this, Harry's mind was still drawn back to the Charms portion of the Course. When he, Draco and Hermione finally discussed it, Harry came to the conclusion that it must have been a side effect of the spell sharing.
"It doesn't say that in the textbook," Hermione said insistently.
"It has to be that, though," Harry said, looking to Draco, who shrugged.
"Maybe we should tell someone," Hermione replied. Harry shook his head.
"I agree with Harry," Draco said.
"But the textbook –" Hermione began.
"Doesn't tell you everything," Draco cut in. "Look, if it happens again, we'll go to someone."
"Nothing has happened since," Harry said, trying to convince Hermione. "It'll be fine. I'm sure it's nothing."