Chapter 6: - Bedlam on broomsticks
Lily was extremely relieved to get back to the Fat lady's corridor without being seen, they were over an hour past the First years curfew. Alice cut short the Fat Lady's chastising of them by giving her the password and forcing her to swing open, they climbed in through the portrait hole and they were all very glad to see that Amanda Hugh-Genghis wasn't in the common room.
"Where have you three been?" Frank Longbottom said coming over to them has they made their way over to the rest of the first years who were sitting watching Peter Pettigrew teach Amy how to play Gobstones "It doesn't take that long to send an Owl!"
"We...Er...We didn't know what to write" Lily lied, she didn't really know why she didn't want to tell the others about what she, Miriam and Alice had seen but for some reason it just didn't feel right,
"It took all three of you over two hours to write one dear mother letter?" Sirius said grinning,
"We had to tie it to the Owl as well" Alice said looking at Sirius as though this was an obvious reason for their long absence "It was a very big owl"
"A big owl?" scoffed James
"It had big feet! Bigger then your head!" Alice said savagely
"We're off to bed!" Miriam announced plucking at Lily and Alice's sleeves
"But it's only eight o'clock" Dymphna called after them as they crossed the common room to the girls dormitories "Amanda says we can stay up at least till half past!!!"
"What is going on with you three?" Frank said grabbing Miriam's arm
"We're just tired Frank that's all" Miriam said pulling her arm away and leading Lily and Alice up to their dormitory.
"Tell me" said Alice as she closed the door behind her "why were we just lying to our friends?"
"I don't know" said Lily and she tried to explain that it didn't seem right to tell everyone that the headmaster was out in the grounds.
"Did you notice" Miriam said sitting down on her bed and stroking Mac "That Remus Lupin wasn't in the common room when we got back"
"Well he probably went for a lie down or something, he was looking a little off colour at dinner" Alice said sitting down next to Miriam
"Mmm.... Maybe" Lily heard Miriam say softly has she continued to stroke Mac who purred loudly. Lily didn't like the look that was slowly creeping across Miriam's face it was one of those deep thoughtful looks, the type Lily's father usually got before he came up with a really harebrained scheme.
"Come on" said Alice getting up "seeing as we're all up here we might has well get some sleep before Amanda comes to wake us up" they all laughed and changed into their pyjama's and night dresses.
"The moon's very bright tonight" Alice said has she pulled the curtains closed "It looks full, maybe Dumbledore and Pomfrey was out in the forest talking to Werewolves and vampires!" Lily and Alice both laughed but Miriam looked as though she was still thinking about what they had seen from the Owlery window. Sighing Lily climbed into bed and pulled her drapes closed around her four poster bed "Good night!" she called
"Night, Night Lily" Alice called sleepily from her right,
"What! Oh night!" Miriam said absently.
"Where were you last night?" Miriam ask Remus Lupin as the they all sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast the next day,"Yeah that's what we'd like to know as well" Frank said sitting down next to Remus with James, Sirius and Peter in tow "You didn't sleep in your bed last night!"
"Oh...er...No i...err... i didn't feel too well and madam Pomfrey decided that I should spend the night in the hospital wing – You know so she could keep an eye on me" Lily and Alice both exchanged the same curious look, but it was Miriam who voiced what they were thinking,
"Did madam Pomfrey stay all night in the hospital wing with you Remy?"
"Yes" Remus said looking down at his bowl of porridge "Why?"
"No reason" Miriam said idly reseaving a very inquisitive look from both Remus and Frank,
After breakfast they all headed out of the hall and into the grounds, today was the day they were going to have their first flying lesson. Out on the grounds Lily could see another class waiting for them and instantly Lily recognised Bellatrix Black standing within the other groups midst.
"No one said we have flying with the Slytherins?" Lily said sounding more alarmed then she had intended to,
"Don't worry about it" Miriam assured her "Some of them have never been on a broom before either!" Falling off her broom wasn't worrying Lily, what was worrying her was the thought of what Bellatrix Black could do to her!
"I'm gong to say hi to Severus and Eloise" Miriam said as she left the Gryffindors and walked over to the Slytherins, Lily watched has Miriam was greeted by the Slytherins as though she was one of their own. Miriam spent fifteen minutes talking and laughing with the Slytherins while the Gryffindors stood silently a good distance away as though the Slytherins where contagious. Lily heard James talking to Sirius about Miriam's behaviour, he kept saying that it was unnatural for a Gryffindor to get along with Slytherins and then as Miriam was taking to Severus James started to mumble words under his breath. Has the flying teacher,Mister Podmore, arrived Miriam returned back to the Gryffindors.
"You'll never guess what I've just heard?" she whispered to Lily and Alice as she started to pull her hair into pigtails and tie them with black ribbons, which most of the girls in the class had done "Severus told me that Walden MacNair had to go to the Hospital wing last night to fix a black eye and cut cheek, because he'd been fighting with a fifth year! Well I asked Walden and he said he hadn't seen anyone else in the Hospital wing" Miriam now lowered her voice even more and Lily and Alice had to lean closer so that they could hear her "He also said that he had to wait for madam Pomfrey to return!"
"So that means he was there when Remus said he should have been?" Lily said in the same whispered voice as Miriam
"Exactly!"
"Why would he lie to us?" Alice asked, Miriam shrugged
"Ladies!" Called a voice behind them startling Lily and she jumped backwards into Frank Longbottom "would you please line up with the rest of your class I would like to start the lesson". The voice belonged to Mister Podmore the flying teacher, he was a tall thin man with a large hooked nose and a crown of grey hair circled the sides and back of his head, Lily was amazed at how much he resembled a vulture.
"I have laid out twenty brooms" Mister Podmore said pointing towards a strip of ground behind him, "Please stand next to a broom". Lily followed Alice, Miriam and the rest of the Gryffindors over to the brooms, they where laid out in two different rows, the Gryffindors and Slytherins lined up facing each other.
"Now that you have chosen your broom" Podmore said walking up the centre of the two groups "You will stretch out your hand over the broom and call in a firm, clear voice UP!" Lily watched Miriam stretching her hand out over the broom and she said almost lazily "Up" and before she had even finished saying the word the Broom leaped into her out stretched hand,
"Very good Miss Artemis!" Mister Podmore said still walking up and down the two rows of students "But after all with a brother like Jedidiah I wouldn't really have expected any less from you" Lily looked at Miriam just in time to see her rolling her eyes, Mister Podmore spent the next five minutes regaling the class of the excellent goals that Jedidiah Artemis had scored in the last Quidditch match of last term, winning Slytherin house the Cup, throughout Podmore's play by play account of the winning game Lily noticed that Miriam remained the only person who had managed to get her broom off the ground, even the Slytherin boys Rabastan Lestrange and Walden MacNair who had been boasting about how they had grown up flying every day only managed to get their brooms to roll around on the ground a little.
"Very good Mr Potter" called Podmore Looking down the line of Gryffindors, James Potter, Alice's twin brother had managed to call his broom into his hand and has Lily watched so had his friend Sirius Black, the other Gryffindor boys seemed to be having a little more trouble with their brooms, Remus Lupin's refused point blank to move at all, Frank Longbottom's raised with so much force that he dived out of it's way and little Peter Pettigrew's wriggled happily on the floor. Lily was having about as much luck as Remus, her broom just lay there in the sun soaked grass,
'Maybe it wasn't magical after all' Lily thought maybe she'd got a dud one that the magic had worn off on, it seemed to be extremely old and battered,
"You have to think about the broom when you're saying the words" Miriam told her "it's more of telling it what to do with you mind and your actions rather then your voice" And Miriam was absolutely right thinking very hard about the broom rising up into the air Lily called "UP" and the broom did!, it gently rose and hovered below Lily's hand, but Lily was so happy saying "I did it, I did it" that she forgot to concentrate on the broom and it fell back down on the grass
"Oh," Lily mumbled "but I did do it".
After fifteen more minutes the whole class had managed to get their booms into their hands, However Lily saw that Peter Pettigrew had cheated, his broom was still lying in the grass at his side when Mister Podmore walked passed him and when Podmore's back was turned Peter quickly bent down and picked his broom up. After Mister Podmore was satisfied that everyone had their brooms he told them to mount their brooms and he went around correcting people's stance's and hand positions. Lily laughed to herself when Mister Podmore informed Lestrange and MacNair that their stance was completely wrong and that their hands should be higher up the broom's handle to give them suitable stability in flight,
"Excellent Miss Artemis, Excellent, I can tell that Jedidiah's been giving you some personal tuition over the summer" Podmore said has he passed Lily and Miriam, Miriam scoffed but Lily was glad, because he didn't make any corrections to her stance or hand positions, Podmore again started off on a recital of Jedidiah's Quidditch abilities and his first time in Podmore's flying lessons,
"I remember it very clearly" Podmore told the class "I could tell that he had the talent told him myself that very day, he was a natural, it was such a pity that the Slytherin team was already full but as soon as Delbert Peasgood left I told him to tryout immediately......" Lily heard Miriam sigh loudly, and they spent the next half hour listening to Podmore rattle on about Jedidiah and his best mate Ludo who was also on the Slytherin Quidditch team. In the last five minutes of the lesson they where able to have a quick fly, Lily was very nervous at this, but it wasn't at all bad and she was beginning to enjoy it. They where only allowed to hover a few feet off the ground 'but still' Lily thought 'I'm quite good at this'.
Lestrange and MacNair were more bothered about showing off then listening to Podmore's instructions they kept removing their hands from the brooms handles when Podmore's back was turned showing everyone that they could keep their balance without holding the handle and in the Gryffindor line James and Sirius where playfully trying to knock each other off their brooms. Lily couldn't believe it, the lesson seemed to have been very mundane but in the last few minuets it had turned into complete bedlam Podmore had spotted James and Sirius and was yelling at them for messing around, there was a very loud thud from the Slytherin row, and looking in the noises direction Lily smiled as Lestrange and MacNair both lost control of their brooms and crashed into each other and ploughed themselves into the ground, the Gryffindors burst into laughter and Lily then heard a muttering next to her, turning she saw James quickly stuffing his wand back into his robes pocket with a very smug look on his face.
"Help!" called Severus Snape, from the Slytherin row, he was flouting ten feet from the ground and his broomstick was bucking madly.
"Mr Snape kindly bring that broom back down here!" Mister Podmore roared has Severus's broom soared higher and higher still bucking "Come back boy!" Podmore roared again, but it was useless yelling even Lily who had only held a broom for the first time that day could tell that Severus wasn't in control of his broom,
"Help!" Severus yelled and the broom bucked even harder, Lily and the rest of the girls gasps has Severus lost his balance on the last jolt the broom had made and he rolled under the broom hanging on with his arms and legs crossed over the handle, James and Sirius burst into laughter but no one else seemed too find it funny, even Mister Podmore didn't seem to know what to do for the best he had removed his wand from his robes and Lily thought that he looked as though he couldn't figure out what spell he should use. Thankfully Mister Podmore wasn't left to ponder this for long, Lily felt a whoosh besides her as Miriam proved that she really could fly extremely well, she hadn't at all been exaggerating her talents, if any thing Lily thought Miriam had been understating her ability.
Severus' Broom bucked again and he completely lost his grip this time and fell, Lily saw Miriam immediately turn her broom and head into a dive, all the first years gasped,
"She'll crash" Alice and Amy squealed,
"No she's not!" Roared Dymphna, and Dymphna was right Miriam had managed to get herself under Severus pulled him onto the broom and pulled out of the dive feet from the ground,
"Merlin's beard Miss Artemis!" Podmore roared amongst the cheering of both classes has Miriam and Severus landed "absolutely marvellous I'll be sure to tell Jedidiah that he'll be having some competition if you make it onto the Gryffindor team in a few years time" Lily made her way through crowd that had gathered around Miriam and Severus and in the distance she heard the bell ring signalling the end of the lesson. Miriam pulled herself out of the throng to join Lily every one was trying to get close to her to congratulate her,
"Well Class dismissed!" Podmore called excitedly, Lestrange and MacNair lead the Slytherins out of the crowded students and they pushed past Lily and Miriam on their way back up to the grate hall.
"Severus are you alright" Lily heard Eloise Rookwood ask as she Maureen Pritchard and Bellatrix cooed over him,
"Those brooms are so ancient" Lily heard Lestrange say "It isn't any wonder that we all weren't killed",
"There isn't anything wrong with those brooms" Lily heard Miriam mumble her face like thunder,
"I don't understand?" Lily asked turning to look at her friend "You of all people saw what happened to poor Severus, surly you can tell that those brooms are a safety hazard, being so old"
"The older the better if you ask me," Miriam said heatedly, then she sighed at the confused look on Lily's face and she explained "those brooms are all Oakshaft 79's, the best brooms every invented, okay the new nimbus series out strips them on speed, height and agility, but the Oakshafts are the safest brooms ever to have been invented, but like most brooms their not jinx proof!"
"So-So let me get this right" Alice said eyeing Miriam up has though she'd gone mad "You think someone would purposefully Jinx Severus' broom?"
"Severus wasn't hurting anyone! Who would do something like that?" said Lily horrified, Severus Snape maybe a little odd but Miriam seemed to like him, and it was only the first week so he couldn't have done anything to have upset anyone, not that Lily knew of anyway.
"James" Alice Muttered
"What?"
"James, I bet you it was James, this is just the type of thing he'd do as well!"
