Chapter Eleven Cherry Bombs
Wednesday, Harry stood up and cleared his throat as the Great Hall quieted. He looked to make sure he had everyone's attention, and was pleased- more or less- to see that even the Bloody Baron was looking at him. "Today," Harry announced, "is the day I'm sure many of you first years have been looking forward to." He saw Lily, who was mainly the only first year he was looking at, look to the other Gryffindors at her table questioningly. "Professor Wood will be holding flying lessons this afternoon. Please see the schedules in your house common rules for further information."
He sat down again and helped himself silently to some rolls and two pancakes. Ron looked at him and then looked away quickly while Hermione looked at Harry with a concerned look on her face. He hadn't spoken to any of them, Hagrid and Neville included, since last Friday. If Harry saw her look, he chose to ignore it as he smeared butter on his pancakes.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Great Hall, the quartet was chattering.
"Bwooms!" Soup exclaimed. "Broomsbwoomsbwoomsbwooms!" Not even a sharp glare from both Becky and Doug would get him to stop and shut up.
"I just hope I don't fall off," Mandy said from beside Doug.
"You won't," Becky told her. "It's easy once you get the hang of it." She made a face. "Just in case, though. If you fall, make sure you're close to the ground."
"Well that makes me feel a lot better," Mandy said dryly. She went back to talking to Erica.
All of the Gryffindor first years raced through breakfast and made it back to their house common room in record time. Becky was in first after taking a short cut no one else knew about.
The first thing the other three heard was the sound of her cussing. The Fat Lady covered her mouth with a hand as the other first years raced through.
"What is it?" Lily asked, making her way across the room to where Becky was seething by the schedule.
"We have flying lessons with the Slytherins," Becky said between grated teeth.
Now all of the first years tumbled over each other.
"Oh, no," Lily moaned. She fell over an armrest into a chair. "One class a week with the Slytherins is enough, but two?"
"It'll be okay," Soup told her as he patted one of her shoes, which were sticking up in the air.
"Right," Lily responded dryly. "In case you haven't noticed, we're doing these lessons with the Slytherins. James is a Slytherin. I hardly know my brother anymore. I don't know why I even admit he's my brother."
"You don't mean that," Becky told her. Although she herself hated James with all her heart and soul, she knew that Lily definitely didn't feel that way.
Lily sighed irately and looked at her watch. "We'd better get going," she told them. "Hermione's class is in a few minutes.
* * *
No matter how hard she tried- or for how long, Lily couldn't be upset when everyone around her was in their best spirits. By the time she was in Ron's class, it was hard to concentrate on her work with everyone around her so excited, but Ron had thankfully expected this and chosen an easy topic to pay attention to: counter curses for if anyone placed a jinx or curse on your broom.
By lunch, all the Gryffindors, even Mandy and Erica, felt ready for that afternoon. During break, Soup had gone to check out Flying High from the library. It contained a lot tips on what to do in different situations, stunts to show off with, and even had an ad for the latest broom, the Lightyear 5000. Mandy was trying to find some cure for people who were afraid of heights. Everyone poured over its contents in the Gryffindor common room, except for Soup, who in the end hadn't had the chance, and Lily had been busy talking to Brownie and the other spiders, who were telling her about what they'd heard in Harry's office. It turned out that Flying High had apparently forgotten to mention all the people who had been injured while flying on their brooms. The spiders even told her that there had been a few deaths. For some reason, they seemed quite pleased with this, and it took Lily a while to understand that the spiders were just excited over how they could understand everything said in the office and were soakin g in everything they learned like juicy house flies.
Brownie shook an arm at Lily. I'm telling you, girl, she told Lily sharply, you fall off that broom or get hurt in any way, you'll have to deal with the consequences. I will not be pleased.
Don't worry about me, Lily told her.
I know. Worry about the others who deserve it. Let me tell you something, girl. Just because you can speak to spiders doesn't mean you have spider blood. Mind you don't slip off the broom.
Lily, slightly touched by Brownie's affection, leaned closer to the crack. Thanks, she told Brownie.
The spider, however, had decided she'd seemed too much like a finch- too caring. She started scrambling for the crack in the floor. In the name of Athena, girl. Get one of those breath mints the other girls have. Your breath smells like a cat's.
Lily grinned and nodded.
As they walked to the fields behind Hogwarts, Lily, Soup, Doug, and Becky fell into step with each other at the back of the line.
The Slytherins were already there, next to the better-looking broomsticks and laughing about something, which, Lily was sure, was them. A man stood in front of them all, looking totally exasperated and a little angry.
The Gryffindors came and took places next to the brooms left, which were, safe to say, not the best.
The man in front of them sighed. "All right. We're all here?" Everyone nodded. "Good. I'm Professor Wood. First of all, mount your brooms like this. Let me see everyone's grip."
Wood floated on his broom, urging it forward slowly as he examined everyone's grip.
"Now then," he said after he was done. "What we're going to do now is kick off the ground, but softly. You want to go straight up, and not that much. Ready?" Without waiting for them to nod, he continued. "Go."
Everyone jumped at different levels. Many were very low and tried to get higher by kicking their feet. James and Lily were above them, sitting comfortably. Lily looked at Becky, who was a foot above her, and grinned. This was so easy! The only person who was having any trouble was Mandy, who had jumped too hard. Immediately, as if on cue, the Slytherins started snickering and jeering.
Wood soared up on his broomstick. No one below could hear what was going on since they were too far up by then, but they did see Mandy hesitantly climb onto the broomstick behind Professor Wood. They came back down to the ground. Even from that far off, Lily could see the whites of Mandy's eyes.
They landed, and Mandy got off the broom shakily.
She stumbled over to Erica, who had gotten off of her broom, and hugged her. "I hate heights," Lily heard Mandy whisper. "I hate them."
Erica tried to calm her down and rubbed her back. She looked at Wood, obviously asking for mercy for her friend.
Wood shrugged. "I need to go get that broom. It takes a while to get new ones." He looked up, trying to find the broom. He groaned. "Oh, no. It's headed for the Forbidden Forest. I'd better get it fast." He looked at everyone before leaving. "Promise you'll be good?" he asked. They all nodded slowly. "Good. Detention to anyone who breaks his or her word."
He soared off after the broom, speeding as fast as he could.
As soon as Wood was out of earshot, the Gryffindors gathered around Mandy, trying to comfort her. The Slytherins roared with laughter.
"Hey, watch this," James told everyone. He took a pack of something out of a pocket in his robe. "Cherry bombs," he whispered to the Slytherins nearby. They chuckled. James took a cherry bomb out of the pack and threw it in the direction of the Gryffindors. It hit someone's broom and exploded with a loud bang that made all of the Gryffindors jump and a few, for instance, Mandy, scream.
"JAMES!" Lily shouted.
James snickered. "Uh oh. I'm in trouble now. Little sister's mad at me." He got on his broom and flew upwards. He dropped a cherry bomb into the Gryffindors' group. Everyone backed away from where it was expected to land, and Doug grabbed Mandy in the nick of time to keep her from getting hit.
"That's it!" Lily yelled. She grabbed her broom and jumped on it. She soared up after James, somehow knowing how to go up and down and from side to side. James apparently knew how, too. He turned around to throw a cherry bomb or two at her. She dodged them easily.
James pulled to a sudden halt. Lily veered so as not to fly into him. She did a loop in the air. It's like being water, she thought to herself with joy.
James dived and grabbed a branch from a near by tree. He struggled as he balanced with his weight and the branch's, but he finally managed to steady himself. He glared at Lily as he grinned wickedly. Lily sat on her broom, hovering in the air, waiting. He threw the pack of cherry bombs into the air. Lily watched. She realized what James was going to do and went straight up just as he hit the pack of bombs with the stick. Immediately, most of them exploded, but there were some that hadn't exploded, Lily knew, because they started going off one by one, slowly. Lily wondered how the bag was managing to stay in one piece and decided that it had to be magic.
James laughed and went back down to the Slytherins. "Good luck, little sister."
Lily looked at the bag again, shaking in fury. He hadn't been aiming it at her after all. He'd been aiming for the Gryffindors.
She soared down. Two more cherry bombs exploded before she was within reach of it. Ten feet till she reached the Gryffindors. Mandy was standing stock still, staring at her in horror. If Mandy didn't move-
Lily urged her broom forward. She stuck her hand out, ready to catch the bag. Five feet. Two feet. Lily felt a corner of the bag and grabbed it as she veered off course and away from Mandy. One of the cherry bombs exploded in her hand. She yelped in pain and rolled off her broom into the grass. Becky hurried over to help her.
"Are you okay?" Becky asked.
Lily blinked away tears, determined not to cry in front of the Slytherins or her brother. "I'm fine. It's just that- my hand hurts." She looked at it and cringed. No fingers were missing, and she supposed that was a good thing. The problem, though, was that her hand was covered in blood. She swallowed, trying to keep calm.
"Excuse me. Excuse me. Okay, that's it. Get out of the way, or I'll blast you!" Lily looked up and grinned as she blearily saw Hermione running towards them.
"How is it?" Hermione asked as soon as she saw Lily. She pushed aside another Gryffindor and saw Lily's hand. She cursed under her breath. "We'll have to take you to Madam Pomfrey, I'm afraid. She's tons better at healing than I am." She looked to Becky. "I think you should come too." Hermione raised her voice. "James?" she called.
Silently, James walked over, looking at his shoes and acting perfectly innocent. "It wasn't my fault, Professor Granger," he said mournfully.
Becky gave a little humph as the Gryffindors, all except Lily, glared at him.
"Don't bother, James," Hermione told him tartly. "I saw the entire thing. I'll take you to see Headmaster Potter, and I'm sure your house will suffer a severe point loss for your antics, and you'll will most likely have detention."
"Not so fast, Professor Granger," said a new voice. Everyone turned to see Professor Malfoy standing there with a wide grin on his face. "I believe that while young James and Ms. Potter were flying in the air, they were both told to stay on the ground and behave. Which means that they would both receive punishment."
"I don't mean that, Professor Malfoy. I mean the way Mr. Potter here threw that pack of cherry bombs right at the Gryffindors. An obvious attempt to harm them."
"One: He didn't throw the cherry bombs. He hit them. With a stick. Two: It's harder to aim that way, and I seriously doubt he meant to harm anyone." He came up behind James and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Isn't that so, James?"
"Yes, sir."
Lily cleared her throat. Hermione glanced at her as Lily held up her hand. Right then, it was numb, but Lily could have sworn that her thumb was starting to come back to life. Hermione's eyes changed, and a bit of feeling came back into them.
"We'll discuss this later," Hermione told Malfoy curtly. "Right now, I have to get Lily to the infirmary before her hand is beyond help. Don't worry," she told the girl as Lily's face blanched. "We'll get there in time. Come on. We'll leave now." Grabbing Lily's other arm, she led her and Becky o the infirmary. Lily tried not to listen to the sudden outburst of laughter from the Slytherins behind her.
* * *
"Honestly," Madam Pomfrey, a short, gray-haired witch, said tiredly. "I don't see why people ride brooms. It's so dangerous."
"It was the cherry bombs that did it," Lily reminded her, defending flying. "Besides, flying's fun."
Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "You and your father..."
Hermione cleared her throat loudly. Madam Pomfrey jumped and became silent as she poured a cream over Lily's hand.
"The skin is the only thing harmed," she explained. "Wait about five minutes and then rub your hands together. It's odd that cherry bombs would do that. Usually, if they do any harm at all, they just burn the skin." She told Lily and Becky crossly, "But that doesn't mean I approve of them at all."
Hermione nodded. "I think I know who might have done this. The Weasley twins need cherry bombs of sufficient strength to blast off all of those toilet seats." Now she also began to talk to Lily and Becky. "They think I don't know that the Gryffindor password- Taes Teliot- is 'Toilet Seat' spelled backwards," she explained to them.
Lily thought. "I think I remember something about that. Kevin and Chris were asking where the cherry bombs were- the ones that Hagrid took from them- and I asked Brownie and she said that they were in Hagrid's cottage, but they'd been taken."
"Why did you ask Brownie?"
"The spiders can understand everything that's said in Harry's- Headmaster Potter's" she hastily corrected herself as she remembered Madam Pomfrey, "study."
"Since when?" Lily looked more closely at Hermione, whose eyebrows were knit together, causing creases all over her forehead.
"I thought you knew."
Hermione shook her head. Lily and Becky looked at each other.
"Rub those hands together, dear," Madam Pomfrey said to Lily. Lily looked at her hands, one of which seemed to be tinged gray, and the other looked too yellow for her tastes. The good thing was that all of her skin was back. She rubbed her hands together obediently. "Get every bit," Madam Pomfrey added. Lily examined her hands. The gray one was beginning to turn back to the fair skin she was used to, and the yellow color was slowly but surely coming off of her other hand. When she was done, her hand was bare of all cuts and signs of the cherry bomb explosion and back to its regular tint.
"Your done," Madam Pomfrey exclaimed with a touch of pride. "Now go on, scat. I've got other patients, you know."
Lily and Becky didn't argue. Instead, they thanked her and walked into the hallway to wait for Hermione. As soon as the door was shut behind them, they lunged for it again and stuck their ears to the door.
"-didn't know he was going to do that," Hermione was saying. "He should have talked to us first."
"Relax, Hermione. He hasn't seen them in ten years. I'd spoil them too, if they were my kids."
"Still, if something happens..."
"Nothing will happen. You'll see. It's been quiet for nearly fifteen years." Hermione cleared her throat in the silence, and Lily could easily imagine the unconvinced look she was giving Madam Pomfrey. "Well, all right. Ten years, then. But it could have been fifteen, if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named hadn't tried to get revenge."
"Poppy," Hermione said tiredly. "Use Voldemort." Becky's eyes popped on the other side of the door, and Lily had to hush her as Becky clapped her hand over her mouth. "It doesn't do to be afraid of a name."
"Sure, sure," Madam Pomfrey said, unconvinced.
Hermione sighed. "I've got to go now. Take the two eavesdroppers outside to the Gryffindor house."
Lily and Becky quickly backed away from the door, staring at each other in surprise. "She couldn't have known," Lily whispered.
Hermione came out of the room, looking as if she hadn't known they had been listening. Following suit, the two girls straightened their backs and tried their best to look innocent while Hermione tried hard to keep from laughing at their efforts.
"Well," she said, changing the subject. "I'm glad to tell you that I don't think you'll be punished, Lily. Malfoy wouldn't do anything that would get a Slytherin in more trouble than a Gryffindor. And, we have an opening on the Quidditch team for seeker."
"Seeker?!" Becky exclaimed. She looked over at Lily. "I told you you'd make a good Seeker!" she told Lily excitedly. Lily grinned back, slightly uncertain.
"If you don't mind my asking, Hermione, what does a Seeker do?"
Hermione's brows knitted together again. "Catches the Snitch, of course." She looked at Lily and saw that this hadn't helped matters. "I'll let Melissa explain it all to you. Melissa McKenzie is the Gryffindor Quidditch team's captain," she explained further."
"Oh."
"I'll tell her as soon as I see her. If my guess is correct, she's on the Quidditch field right now, trying out her new broom that she got from her parents for the school year to celebrate. She was voted captain just last year, you see. This is her first year coaching. The broom is a Lightyear 2000. You'll probably need a 5000, though. I'll talk to Harry." Hermione's features clouded slightly. "You to go on to the house. I really have to talk to Harry."
"It wasn't such a bad thing, was it?" Lily asked, hoping to stand up for Harry. She'd heard of stories about what happened when Hermione got mad. She didn't want to hear one about Hermione's anger being directed at her father.
Hermione looked down her nose at her. Lily looked away and walked with Becky to the Gryffindor house.