Chapter 8. A Diligent Student

Maura had to stay in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend because of her concussion. She slept most of the time, but when she was awake she had to take a painkiller to get rid of the terrible headache that came each time right after she woke up.

Unfortunately the hospital wing wasn't a very appropriate place to recover from a blow to the head, because it wasn't very quiet. Students came in and out for all kinds of injuries they had incurred while making homework or while exploring the Hogwarts grounds. However, she still had to stay, because Madam Pomfrey didn't want to let her out of her sight that first night and the next day.

On Sunday Neville visited her and he brought Harry Potter with him. At first Maura was confused as to why Harry came to see her, but it became clear when he wanted to hear everything about the Slytherin Quidditch tryouts. Maura sat up straight in her bed and told him and Neville everything: from the horrible school broom that tried to shake her off all the time, to the Bludgers and how horrible she had been at evading them, finishing with the fall from her broom, Adrian's spell, and waking up in the hospital wing.

"Why didn't Madam Hooch use that spell on me? I wouldn't have broken my wrist!" Neville said, looking confused.

"You probably didn't fall from a high enough distance for her to have the time to pull her wand out," Harry replied. Neville shuddered.

"I don't even want to think about falling from an even greater height."

Maura grimaced at his words.

"Anyway, it was actually a lot of fun until I fell off," Maura said. "Pity I didn't make the team. Fortunately Blaise did."

"Another first year got into a Quidditch team?" Neville asked with surprise on his face. Maura nodded, feeling proud of her friend.

"Another... Who else did?" she asked.

"I did!" Harry said with a grin on his face. Maura raised her eyebrows. Harry had never even flown before he got to Hogwarts! How come he had made the Gryffindor Quidditch team when she had failed at getting into the Slytherin one, even though she had been flying her whole life?

Bludgers.

The answer sprang into her mind immediately. She had been terrible at evading the Bludgers. She couldn't focus on them while simultaneously focusing on her team members and handling the Quaffle. She had to get better at it.

"How did you make the team?" Maura asked Harry. He began telling the same story Blaise had told her a few days ago; about Draco and Neville's Remembrall. McGonagall had seen Harry catch it and immediately thought he would be the perfect Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. It was kind of unfair that Harry hadn't even needed to try out, but Maura didn't mention it.

The next morning Maura begged Madam Pomfrey to let her go, because she didn't want to miss any of her classes and especially not the extra Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Snape, although she didn't mention this last thing to the nurse. The nurse asked her a series of simple questions, to check if her concussion was gone, and was satisfied with the answers Maura gave her. Maura walked off with a bottle of painkillers and the instructions to take one if she felt a headache coming up with a maximum of two a day.

Maura went to the dungeons to freshen herself up, and to change into her school robes first. She also picked out the books she would need for the day and put them in her bag, which she slung around her shoulder. Afterwards she went to the Great Hall for breakfast. Her stomach was rumbling, but when she walked into the Great Hall she winced at the noise. She joined Blaise at the Slytherin table and took the first painkiller of that day. She couldn't help herself telling Blaise everything she had heard from Harry about how he had made the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"He didn't even have to try out?" Blaise asked with a scowl on his face at which Maura shook her head in reply.

She put eggs, toast and a handful of strawberries on her plate. The breakfast at Hogwarts always smelled so good. While she ate, they discussed the events of last Saturday again.

"Was your broom acting up as well?" Maura asked Blaise.

"Yeah, it was horrible. I went to discuss it with Snape and said not to worry about it. He said he would take care of it before the first match. Maybe he's going to make Madam Hooch take better care of her brooms. I don't know."

"Or maybe he's going to allow you to get your own broom!" Maura said, the excitement sounding in her voice. Maybe Snape would make an exception for Blaise on the 'first years shall not have a broom' rule.

They were quiet for a few seconds, thinking about how it would be to own their own broomstick and fly around the Hogwarts grounds.

"It really is a shame we're not on the team together, but you're going to try again next year right? You can practice and try again," Blaise said.

Maura nodded. "Yeah, I definitely will. Especially now that I got to fly on the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, I don't want to give it up that easily. I'll have to train not getting hit by Bludgers all the time though. However, I'm not sure the Slytherin Beaters would like to train a first year how to stay on her broom."

Suddenly an idea came into her mind.

"Oh! I've got to go." she exclaimed and quickly got up. She picked up the last piece of toast that was still left on her plate, put it in her mouth, picked up her bag and walked off.

"Hey! Mind to tell me where you're going?" Blaise called after her.

"I'll tell you at Herbology!" Maura replied with her mouth full. She made her way over towards the Gryffindor table, which seemed to be even louder with chatter than the Slytherin table had been, and searched for the red-headed duo. She was happy the pain killer had started working, otherwise the Gryffindor table would definitely have induced a new headache. She found the twins in the midst of a conversation with Peeves the Poltergeist, who had his transparent arms full of breakfast muffins and was floating next to the bench where the twins were sitting. Considering an angry looking group of Gryffindors a few feet away, their robes and hair full of crumbs and pieces of chocolate and blueberry, Peeves had been throwing the muffins at students.

"I'll take one!" Maura said while snatching a muffin out of Peeves' arms. It smelled delicious. "The Slytherin table didn't have these."

"Hey!" Peeves said, while grabbing another muffin in his hand to throw at her. One of the twins quickly got up and lowered Peeves' arm.

"That won't be needed, Peeves. She's with us," he said. Peeves grumbled and floated off, throwing the muffin instead at the back of the head of a Ravenclaw girl who had been in conversation with the girl next to her, but was now wiping the crumbs out of her hair with frantic movements and an annoyed expression.

"So you thought we were worthy enough to be honoured with your presence again, Miss Slytherin?" the twin who had prevented Peeves from making Maura his target said. She recognised him as Fred.

"Don't call me that," Maura replied.

"And to think we were sure you would be back for more of our unwavering charm before the end of your first week at Hogwarts was over," the other twin, George, said.

Maura smiled. "I didn't need you yet back then."

"Heard that, George? She didn't object against the part where you said we have unwavering charm," Fred said, but she had gotten their attention.

George got up from the bench and they both came close on either side of Maura.

"You need us?" Fred asked from her right.

"What's in it for us?" This was George on her left.

Maura folded her arms together, her muffin still in one hand. "First of all, you promised me something. On the Hogwarts Express, remember? And second—"

"HEY YOU ARE THAT IMP THAT THREW A STONE THROUGH MY HEAD!"

Maura's eyes widened. It was Peeves.

"Let's not do it here!" she said to Fred and George and then started running out of the Great Hall. Muffins were flying around her head now and Peeves threw every curse word in existence at her. Amidst the laughter of other students, especially Gryffindors, the twins' footsteps sounded behind her. Maura looked over her shoulder at them, Peeves in close pursuit. She let out a sound of glee. After lying in the hospital for a whole weekend, her body was happy to be moving again.

She crossed the entrance hall and ran out into the courtyard, where she came to a halt, catching her breath. The twins had followed and were now karate chopping the muffins from the air. When Peeves, floating in the entrance of the castle, finally ran out of them, he retreated with another series of curse words aimed at Maura, who stuck out her tongue at him in return.

"Well, that was exciting," Fred said as he stole Maura's muffin she had taken from Peeves earlier and took a bite.

"Mm, pretty good! Want a bite, George?"

"Yeah!" Fred threw the muffin underhand to George.

Maura quickly took out her wand from inside her robes and said "Duro," while pointing it at the muffin. The muffin turned to stone, just before George took a bite.

"Ouch!" George dropped the muffin and it hit the ground with a thud. Fred was laughing at George, who kicked the muffin which rolled away and came to a halt at the foot of a small stone bench. "That hurt!"

"Then don't steal my muffin," Maura replied through her giggles. She wiped the large amount of muffin crumbs from her robes and wrapped them a little tighter around her, still barely being able to contain her laughter.

The weather was very nice, but it was noticeable that Autumn was on its way as it was getting chillier each day. There were small groups of students taking a stroll or discussing their homework before classes, but it was nowhere near as crowded as the Great Hall had been. That was an accidental benefit from having had to run from Peeves, as she didn't like to admit that she was bad at something next to a table full of Gryffindors.

"You threw a stone at Peeves?" Fred asked after he was finished laughing at George, who had put aside his grudge and had joined the laughter as well.

"That's brave," George said.

"It was just a pebble. And he threw them at me and my brother first," Maura replied, still trying to contain her giggles. The twins gave her an appreciative stare.

"So what do you need us for?"

Maura tried to pull her face straight, which finally worked when she remembered the goal for which she had gone through all of this harassment by Peeves for.

"I tried out for Chaser for the Slytherin Quidditch team," she began explaining. "I got through to the second round even though I was flying on the school brooms, but in that round we had to evade Bludgers-" Maura trailed off. Fred and George were looking at each other knowingly.

"And you were terrible," Fred suggested.

"What? No!" Maura folded her arms together and looked away, musing over how to explain what had happened, but how could you explain getting a Bludger to the head, falling off your broom, and waking up in the hospital wing without agreeing to not being good enough? Then again, it was the truth. She hadn't been good enough and that's why she was not on the team.

"Okay, yeah, I was terrible. Those Bludgers are as fast as lightning and I couldn't keep up with where they were and what direction they were flying. I got hit a lot, and I ended up in the hospital wing after falling from my broom, because one of those damned things hit the back of my head." Maura braced herself for being laughed at, but the twins were quiet, so she kept going. "I know you're Beaters for the Gryffindor team, Harry told me, and as I'm planning on making the Slytherin Quidditch team next year, I want you two to give me that flying lesson you promised me, and I want you to teach me how to evade Bludgers."

Fred and George were grinning again.

The courtyard around them was almost empty now save for them three. Maura would have to run to get to Herbology on time. Normally Madame Sprout wasn't that strict, and Maura had always been on time so far, so she would probably overlook her being late this time.

"You came to exactly the right place," George said.

"I- I already knew that," Maura replied. These two really liked making a show of every single thing they did.

"We have the perfect teaching method for this," Fred said.

Oh no.

"That means I should be worried, shouldn't I?"

The bell rang. Fred put his arm around Maura's shoulder and led her back in the direction of the entrance.

"Worried? No. Excited? Definitely!"

"Fred, I have to go to the greenhouses not the—" Maura tried to stop Fred from pushing her towards the castle. She was itching to run towards her class, because she didn't know how far she could push it with Professor Sprout.

"Just trust us and you will be zigzagging through a Quidditch pitch with hundreds of Bludgers flying around without getting a scratch in no time," George said. Maura stopped squeezing out from under Fred's arm and looked up at George, feeling her face pull into a smirk. If he really thought that, he would probably be disappointed soon enough. However, it did sound like an appealing prospect.

"Alright, let's see what you have in store for me. When and where?" Maura asked.

"Unfortunately it will have to wait for a bit. Oliver Wood, our Quidditch Captain, will kill us if he sees us giving other students flying lessons instead of training ourselves on the weekends," George said.

"How about the Saturday one week after Gryffindor versus Slytherin? We'll meet here in the courtyard. That is to say if you still want to look us in the face after we beat your House to the ground," Fred said.

Maura snorted. "Take it easy on getting too full of yourselves. I heard the Slytherin team has a pretty strong line-up," she jumped out from in-between the twins and walked a few steps in the direction of one of the side exits of the courtyard that led towards the greenhouses. She turned around at the twins, walking backwards.

"Saturday after the Quidditch match in the courtyard. See you then! Gotta go now!" she called back and then sprinted towards Herbology.

The day went by quickly, save for maybe History of Magic, which was always boring and sleep-inducing. However, Charms and Transfiguration had been really fun, because the students could practice spells with their wands, which Maura always enjoyed. The Slytherins had Charms together with the Ravenclaws on Monday, which was delightful, because if there was any House competition against Slytherin more fun than Gryffindor, it was Ravenclaw. Its students were maybe not as ambitious as the Slytherins were, but they were definitely dead set on beating them with doing spells. The Slytherins did not make it easy for them of course, and the whole hour was filled with students managing spell after spell pure out of spite. Professor Flitwick gave both Houses a fair share of House points for their accomplishments.

While there was a rivalry between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, there was almost none between Slytherin and Hufflepuff, which was apparent in the dynamics between the two Houses during Transfiguration. During this class the Slytherins didn't show off their spell work to brag about their skills, but were way more inclined to help the Hufflepuffs to get it right. It was therefore not surprising that some Slytherins easily made friends with Hufflepuffs.

After dinner that night, Maura made her way to Snape's office, which was in the dungeons just like his Potions classroom. She had never been there before, but she had asked the Slytherin prefect, Gemma Farley, for the directions.

Maura knocked on the wooden door of the office, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet, itching to go in and learn new spells.

"Come in," Snape's voice said from inside the office. Maura turned the handle and the door opened with a creak. Inside, Snape sat at his desk, reading a dusty old book, with a pair of small, silver rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

"Good evening Professor," Maura made her way over to Snape's desk, eyeing him expectantly. Snape slowly looked up.

"Sit."

Maura quickly dropped down onto a wooden chair with a green cushion in front of Snape's desk, that looked a bit out of place and instead looked like it was meant to stand at a dinner table in a stately home. She quickly glanced around the office. It was just as gloomy as the Potions classroom was. There were also shelves upon shelves with bottles, flasks, vials, flacons and even pitchers full of potions and other liquids in all kinds of colours. Some even held objects, probably potion ingredients she couldn't quite place.

Snape cleared his throat and Maura returned her gaze back to him.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts is a broad subject that cannot be covered in one lesson. Therefore I want to ask you what you were expecting to learn here, Miss Longbottom?"

"Duelling," Maura replied without missing a beat. Snape raised his eyebrows and fixed her with a long stare. The glasses made him less scary, but he was still intimidating.

"You seem pretty sure of what you want. May I ask where this ambition to learn about Wizard Duelling, I hope that's what you mean, comes from?"

Maura wiggled a bit in her chair. How was she supposed to explain to Snape why she wanted to learn duelling if she didn't even know how to explain it to herself? She had wanted to learn it for years and Hogwarts was the place she was supposed to learn it.

"Because there's terrible things out there and I want to be able to protect myself," she replied after a few seconds.

"That sounds like a perfect textbook answer. However, I've been Head of Slytherin for quite a while now and I know Slytherins don't just want to learn stuff just because. If they did, they would've been sorted into Ravenclaw. So what is it? Why did you come to me for this lesson?"

Maura had to bite on her tongue to keep herself from snapping at her Professor.

"I'm not lying when I say I want to be able to defend myself and my brother too. I don't think it has escaped your notice that our childhoods haven't exactly been easy." She was fumbling with her hands again. She always did that when she was nervous.

"No, it hasn't," Snape replied while getting up. He took off his glasses and placed them on his desk. "However, I do doubt that you could do anything to change that now or anywhere in the future."

Maura didn't reply, but instead regarded him defiantly.

"Get up and get out your wand," Snape commanded. He stood next to his desk and gestured to an empty place about ten feet in front of him. Maura got up and stood on the place he indicated.

"A Wizard's duel is a formal practice in which two or more wizards or witches engage in combat under the condition that only magical means can be used. I expect you already know this, but let me go over the formalities just in case. The combatants face each other and bow, as a sign of respect." Snape bowed and Maura quickly followed his example.

"Good. Now we take an accepted combative position. This is a position in which you brandish your wand to show your opponent that you're ready." Snape held his wand hand above his hand, and put his other one out in front of him. Maura had never taken a combative position before, so she just stood straight and put out her right arm straight in front of her, her wand aimed at Snape.

"Very well. On the count of three, the duel begins. One— two—"

"Wait, sir, I don't know what spell to—"

"Three! Expelliarmus!" Snape waved his wand and Maura's jumped right out of her hand.

"...use," she finished. Well, that had been unexpected, but pretty cool. "Please teach me that spell Professor!"

"I wouldn't have used it if I wasn't already planning on doing so. You really ought to learn some patience," he replied. Maura nodded, searched around her for her wand, found it in the corner under a shelf full of purple liquids, and retrieved it.

"The Disarming Charm, its incantation 'Expelliarmus', forces whatever an opponent is holding to fly out of their hand. It is commonly used in duels to make your opponent lose their wand. Most people overlook this spell, and immediately go on to learning more... damaging spells, but the Disarming Charm is the most useful one when your facing an opponent, even one stronger than you." Snape shook his head to indicate that Maura should take her place in front of him again. She did.

"Normally this spell is taught in the second year at Hogwarts, but you wanted something you could practice and I shall provide it."

Maura grinned. This was perfect. This was something she could actually do instead of write down.

"Now don't say the incantation yet, but hold out your wand and move it like this." Snape made a spiral shape with his wand and ended the movement with pointing it straight at her. Maura mimicked the movements with her own wand. Snape nodded.

"Get in position again and on the count of three, try to disarm me." Maura quickly repeated the incantation in her head. Expelliarmus. Expelliarmus. Expelliarmus.

She wanted to get it right. She wanted to show Snape she was good at doing magic, as he had been disappointed by her Potions work that first class and still wasn't of the opinion that she was killing it after the second week.

"One— Two— Three!"

"Expelliarmus!" Maura shouted while waving her wand and even bent forward a bit in the excitement of the moment. Snape's wand made a little jump and clattered to the stone ground. Snape bent over and picked it up.

"Well done, Longbottom. You managed to disarm me at your first try." Maura felt a grin creep onto her face at his praise. "However, I wasn't resisting much and it wasn't a very powerful spell. We'll fix that by practicing it the rest of the evening and after this lesson I expect you to continue practicing it."

Maura nodded fervently. "I definitely will!" She was already thinking about all the times she was going to use this spell on Malfoy just to screw with him.

So the rest of the lesson Maura repeated the spell over and over again. Snape's wand flew out of his hand more often than the times Neville had lost Trevor the toad in his entire life.

Snape also demonstrated the spell a few more times, to show how to put more force behind it and make the wand fly further away, thus reducing the chance of an opponent getting to it easily. One time Maura was even pushed away and lost her footing, instead of just her wand, from the force of the spell.

"If I wanted to, I could blow you through this wall with this spell alone. Never underestimate it."

Maura did not underestimate it.

She kept practicing, perfecting her wand movement and forced the intention behind it to be stronger each time she performed the spell. Snape didn't even bother to pick up his wand from the floor anymore and just let it fly back into his hand. Maura definitely wanted to know how he did that, but Snape probably wouldn't appreciate it if she got ahead of herself again.

When the clock above Snape's desk chimed to announce that it was nine o'clock, Maura was able to send Snape's wand flying about six feet away from him. It still wasn't very far, but it was about two meters more than the first time she had tried it, which was progress.

"All right, that's enough for today. Like I said, keep practicing this spell and come back to me when you're ready to learn more."

Maura had to pause at that. Had she heard that right?

"You want to teach me more?" she asked.

"Yes, I can only encourage students wanting to excel in something as important as this," Snape replied while making his way over to the door of his office. He opened it. "Good evening."

Maura had to restrain herself from dancing out of the classroom.

"Thank you Professor! Good evening," she said as she passed him and left his office. The door closed behind her and Maura permitted herself to do a small victory dance before running back towards the Slytherin common room.