Chapter One
Serenity's POV~
As the other First year Slytherins and I walk to our first flying lesson, I stare longingly at the window that Liz told me was the only window in her isolated room.
Preoccupation, unfortunately, kept me from noticing that the Slytherins (I felt oddly detached from my house) had stopped walking so I walked right into Blaise Zabini.
"Sorry Blaise." I quickly apologize, backing away from the group and looking upward.
My eyes catch on a midnight blue hawk circling above me.
"Serenity!" Bluemoon calls down.
"Be up in a few!" I call back.
"All right. I'll be doing some exploring while you're down there." Bluemoon replies then zooms off towards the Forbidden Forest.
I sigh and look down, stopping suddenly when I notice the Gryffindors walking down the sloping lawn.
I dash towards the broom and pretend to be preoccupied by what broom I should use. I was mostly hidden from the view of the Gryffindors but the other Slytherins were glaring at me.
Then Madam Hooch came.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" she barks. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."
A quick blink and I know which broom was the most able; the broom on the far end has the best 'rating' in this whole lot. I dash off towards it so no one else would get it.
Only after I stood by my broom did I notice that stood on the Gryffindor side of the line. I feel the Slytherins staring at the side of my face while I pay attention.
"Stick your right hand over your broom," Madam Hooch calls from the front, "and say 'Up!'"
"UP!" Everyone shouts, myself being no exception.
"My broom jumps into my hand immediately, but it was one of the few that did. Harry Potter's had done the same as mine but Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over and Neville Longbottom's hadn't moved at all. I nearly smirk when I realize that their brooms were two of the worst here.
Madam Hooch shows us how to mount our brooms without sliding off the end, then walks up and down the line, correcting our grips. I quickly hide my smirk when she told Draco he'd been doing it wrong for years.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch says. "Keep your broom steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle – three – two –"
But Neville Longbottom, beside me, nervous, jumpy and afraid of being left on the ground, pushes off hard before the whistle had even gotten to Madam Hooch's lips.
"Come back, boy!" she shouts but Neville Longbottom was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle – twelve feet – twenty feet.
I see his scared white face look down at the receding ground, see his breath catch, slip sideways off the broom and –
WHAM – a thud and a nasty crack and Neville Longbottom lay facedown on the grass in a heap in front of me. I recoil in surprise.
Madam Hooch is suddenly in front of me as well, bending over Neville Longbottom, her face as white as his.
"Broken wrist," I hear her mutter. "Come on, boy – it's all right, up you get."
Madam Hooch turns to the rest of the class.
"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts faster than you can say 'Quidditch'. Come on dear."
Neville, his face tear-streaked and clutching his wrist, hobbles off with Madam Hooch, who has her arm around the poor boy.
No sooner were they out of earshot than Draco bursts out into laughter.
"Did you see his face? The great lump!"
"Ah!!! Serenity! If this is your broom, you're cat food when I get back!" I hear Bluemoon screech from somewhere over the Forbidden Forest.
I gasp, covering my grin quickly, but I couldn't help but shake from the bottled laughter.
"Shut up, Malfoy." a Gryffindor girl, Parvati Patil, snaps as I edge away from the Gryffindor gaggle. I didn't want any part of the fight that was brewing.
"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" Pansy Parkinson snarls. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."
'You're certainly one to talk, Pansy. You're two out of three.' I think, edging further away.
"Look!" Draco says, darting forward and snatching something small out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."
A Remembrall glitters in the sun as Draco holds it up. 'It must be one of the newer ones,' I think, 'that Grandpere was working on before we left for Diagon Alley.'
"Give that here, Malfoy," Harry Potter says quietly. Everyone stops talking to watch.
Draco smiles nastily. A smile I knew only too well. Whenever he wore that smile around me, it usually meant that a trip to the hospital wing was in order and it wouldn't be for him.
"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find – how about – up a tree?"
"Give it here!" Harry Potter yells, but Draco had leapt on to his broom and taken off. He hadn't been simply boasting; he could fly well. Hovering level with the top of a near by oak tree, he calls, "Come and get it, Potter."
Harry grabs his broom.
"No" Hermione Granger shouts. "Madam Hooch told us not to move – you'll get us all into trouble!"
Harry ignores her, mounts his broom and kicks off, soaring upward. He pulls his broomstick up a little to take him even higher.
I laugh harshly at Draco but my laugh was covered by the gasps and screams of girls, Slytherin and Gryffindor alike, and Ron Weasley's admiring whoop.
Harry turns his broom sharply to face a very stunned looking Draco.
"Give it here," Harry calls, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"
"Oh yeah?" Draco says, trying to sneer but looking worried.
Harry leans forward and shoots towards Draco like an arrow. Draco only just gets out of the way in time; Harry makes a sharp about-face and holds his broom steady. I join Ron Weasley, and a few others, clapping. I sincerely hope that Harry'd teach Draco a lesson.
"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry calls.
'Point!' I declare silently as the same thought strikes Draco's pitiful excuse for a brain.
"Catch it if you can, then!" Draco shouts and throws the Remembrall high into the air and streaks back towards the ground.
The ball rises in the air then starts to fall. Harry leans forward and points his broom handle down – next second he was racing the Remembrall in a steep dive – some Gryffindor girls were screaming – he stretches out his hand – my breath catches as I sense someone coming – a foot from the ground, Harry catches it; just in time to pull his broom straight and he topples gently on to the grass with the Remembrall in his fist.
"HARRY POTTER!"
Harry's face falls faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall is running towards us. Harry gets shakily to his feet.
"Never – in all my time at Hogwarts –"
Professor McGonagall looks almost speechless with shock and her glasses flash furiously, " – how dare you – you might have broken your neck –"
"It wasn't his fault, Professor –"
"Be quiet, Miss Patil –"
"But Malfoy –"
"Not now, Mr. Weasley –"
"But Neville's Remembrall –" I find myself starting.
"That's enough, Miss Silverwing. Potter, follow me, now."
Harry trudges off behind Professor McGonagall.
'Poor Harry.' I think. 'He's going to get expelled before he even got to Halloween.'
I absentmindedly take out my wand. Ebony wood with falcon feather and phoenix talon, nine inches with carving that made it look like a feather had been imprinted into the black wood.
'I won't stop going to Hogwarts,' I had silently vowed that summer, 'until I've graduated or I don't have a wand.'
"All right! Enough chatter! Back on your brooms!"
Madam Hooch calls upon her return, snapping me from my reverie.
It turns out that it was quite easy to fly on a broomstick. I just want to hover high in the autumnal air and look out over the surrounding sights.
I was just about to come down when a broom came flying, out of nowhere, at me. I swerve out of the way.
"Is that your broom, Serenity?!" Bluemoon shrieks, turning the broom around. She'd been 'riding' on it. Or, to be correct, she'd grabbed on to the handle and steered it.
I smile.
"No. That was a Gryffindor boy's. He fell of it and he's in the Hospital wing now."
"Oh." Bluemoon mutters.
"Give the broom to me. I'll turn it in." I say, turning around. "I might even let you ride down with me."
"No thanks. I need to grab dinner." she replies, 'giving' me the broom and flying off.
"Happy hunting!" I call after her. She responds with a shriek.
"Silverwing! Get down here! I said go up then come straight back down. Not hover thirty feet in the air!" Madam Hooch yells from the ground below.
"Sorry. Coming! I got Neville's broom!" I yell back, curving around in a small about-face, and lazily spiral back to the ground.
I land gently and hop off the broom.
"Here, Madam Hooch. My bird sort of came across it the hard way." I say, handing her the brooms and trying to hide a smirk of amusement.
"I'm a hawk, Serenity. A hawk." Bluemoon yells from somewhere above.
Madam Hooch looks almost speechless but thanks me and sends me back to the castle.
'That was fun.' I think. 'I hope I get to do that again.'
Disclaimer and Authoress's Note: *clears her throat* Serenity Silverwing and Bluemoon are mine and no one else's! Liz is my friend Electra's and everyone else belongs to J.K. Rowling-kami. Thanks for reading!
~Tes-sama
or
~Ani-Kami