On Thursday morning Hermione was boring all of them with facts and trivia about flying and broomsticks. Everything she had learned from memorizing 'Quidditch Through the Ages'.
At 3:30 they all marched to their doom. Well, not exactly, you see Erin was one slipped remark from pummeling Malfoy senseless with one of the brooms and Harry felt the same as she did. It was a clear day, the wind blowing gently through the grass.
The Slytherins were already there. Madam Hooch, the teacher, arrived soon after. She was a striking woman with short silvery hair and yellow hawk-like eyes. "Everyone stand by a broom." Erin stood next to Hermione, she was standing next to Harry and Ron was on his other side near Neville. "Stick out your right hand and say 'Up!'"
"Up!" Everyone shouted.
Erin's broom jumped into her hands. Hermione was looking at Harry and Erin quite surprised. Hers had simply rolled over. It took a few minutes for everyone to get his or her brooms off the ground. "Now when you have your broom I want you mount it." She walked over to Erin, as she was the first in line. "Perfect, Miss Lyancomp, first time on a broom?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
She moved on. Everyone was highly amused when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years. "Now, when I blow my whistle I want you to kick off from the ground hard, hover for a moment, lean forward and touch back down. On my whistle-three-two—"
Neville pushed off too soon. "Neville!"
Everyone was shouting. "Mr. Longbottom! Come down this instant!"
He kept rising however and shot off, bouncing off walls and over the castle paramounts. He shot toward the students at one point so everyone had to jump, run and scramble out of the way. He flew over them and got caught on a spoke protruding from the wall by his cloak. It ripped and he fell. He was caught by torch holder and slipped out of his robes onto the ground.
"Out of the way!" Madam Hooch called kneeling beside him. "Broken wrist." She said. She helped Neville up and turned to the others. "None of you are to move while I take Mr. Longbottom to the hospital wing. If I see a single broom in the air, the person riding it will be out of Hogwarts before he can say 'Quidditch'" She left.
Malfoy tossed something into the air. It was Neville's Remembrall. The four of them (Harry, Ron, Hermione and Erin) remembered he had gotten it by owl that morning. "If the fat lump had given this a squeeze he would have remembered to fall on his fat arse!"
"Give it here, Malfoy." Harry said.
Malfoy sneered. "No. I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find. How 'bout on the roof?" He had mounted his broom and was flying off now. "What's the matter, Potter, bit beyond your reach?"
Harry mounted his broom. "Harry, no way! You heard what Madam Hooch said. Besides you don't even know how to fly." He didn't listen to her. He went after Malfoy. "What an idiot."
"Hermione, he's doing what he feels he has to do." Erin whispered watching them anxiously.
They could hear some of what Malfoy and Harry said above them. "Give it here, Malfoy or I'll knock you off your broom!"
"Is that so? Have it your way then!" Malfoy threw the Remembrall in the opposite direction. Harry flew past him. Malfoy looked stunned; Harry could fly very well. Those below watched as he sped through the air and caught the Remembrall before it hit the castle.
He flew down and everyone surrounded him, congratulating him. "Harry Potter!" McGonagall was there! "Follow me, please."
They watched him go with the Slytherins laughing amongst themselves. "Well," Erin turned to look at Malfoy. "At least we know who's the better flyer."
Malfoy leered at the pretty girl. "And at least we know who here has a father who is in Azkaban."
Erin frowned. "And we know whose fathers' are Death Eaters."
Ron shook his head at Erin warning her to stop. "Well, at least my father didn't murder 13 people!" Malfoy hurled the insult.
"At least my father isn't You-Know-Who's lapdog!" She yelled at him. Hermione was grabbing Erin's arm trying to stop her. The bad part was some of the Slytherins were trying to stop Malfoy.
"No, your father was a traitor!"
"Your father is liar and the only reason he is respected in the community is because he threatens to curse people and gives gold to the right people!"
"Your father's a lunatic!"
"Your father's a power-hungry maniac!"
"Your father betrayed his friends!"
"Your father only has friends because they're too scared not to be!"
"Your father is a blood traitor!" Erin was fuming when he said that.
"Erin, no!" Ron begged. She looked right at him. He knew exactly what the girl was going to say. "Don't do it!" He begged.
"Your blood is tainted by a bunch of inbreeding! The prime example why first cousins shouldn't procreate!" Erin snarled at Malfoy.
He was furious and everyone doubted he had anything to say that was worse. Oh, he could, but everyone would know it wasn't true. Instead he drew his wand. Erin drew her own. "You're going to pay for that!"
"I seriously doubt it, Malfoy. Everyone knows your wand skills are worse than your broom handling."
"Erin, please!" Ron begged.
"Stay out of this, Ron!" She hissed.
"Madam Hooch!" Hermione yelled pointing.
"Yeah, right, you expect me to fall for that one?" Malfoy asked but then he saw that Erin had put her wand away. He whirled around and saw she was indeed striding toward us across the lawns. "Watch your back." He whispered maliciously.
"Watch your own." Erin said just as suggestively.
Ron and Erin caught up to Harry afterward. "Harry, you will never guess what happened!"
"Neither will you." Harry said.
"You first." Erin said.
"But—" Ron started.
"Ron, I think Harry has more news than we do." Erin grinned.
"I've been made Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team!" Harry grinned.
"Seeker?" Ron asked amazed. "But first years never make the house team. You must be the youngest Seeker in a—"
"Century. According to McGonagall." Harry said.
"Well, done, Harry!" Fred and George came up.
"Wood's just told us!"
"Fred and George are on the team too, Beaters." Ron said.
George whispered. "We heard about what happened."
"And?" Erin asked him.
"And you have got some spunk, talking to a Malfoy like that." George grinned in admiration.
"I'd say the same things to his father."
"Our job is to make sure you don't get roughed up to bad." Fred said, talking to Harry.
"Can't make any promises though, rough game Quidditch." George said winking at the black haired girl.
"Brutal!" Fred said. "But no one's died in years."
"They will vanish occasionally!"
"But they'll turn up in a month or two!"
They were going to class. "What was George saying?" Harry asked.
Ron laughed. "Harry! You should have been there! Erin and Malfoy went at it right there after you left! She got the best of him! She didn't even have to think of insults, they just came out of her! It will be all around school soon enough."
"Already is." Erin laughed. "If George and Fred have anything to do with it they will exaggerate my performance to include Malfoy and I rolling around on the ground punching and kicking."
"That would have been great!" Ron said.
"Harry, all the time I was doing this Ron was begging me to stop. And now he wishes I had attacked him!" She rolled her eyes but still laughed. "I think I could have won. Even if Crabbe and Goyle had got into it." Crabbe and Goyle were Malfoy's lapdogs.
"I don't know." Harry said. "Three on one?"
"You'd be surprised how strong one gets when they have to clean from dawn till dusk for as long as they can remember." Erin laughed.
"I believe you." Harry said and Erin had the strangest feeling he did.
"Especially when it is an entire orphanage." She blanched. "I do not relish returning there."
"I know how you feel." Harry said. "I wouldn't return to my aunt's and uncle's if I didn't have to."
"Come on, you two! Harry, what else?" Ron asked excitedly.
"All I can think of is 'What if I make a fool of myself?'" Harry asked them.
"You won't." Erin said encouragingly.
"It's in your blood." They turned to see that Hermione had popped up out of nowhere.
She led them to the trophy room. "Here." She pointed to a plaque. "Gryffindor Team of 1977."
Gryffindor House Team James Potter Seeker, Captain
Sirius Black Chaser
Lily Evans Chaser
Xenia Lyancomp Chaser Fabian Prewitt BeaterGideon Prewitt Beater
Remus Lupin KeeperRon gasped. "Harry, you didn't tell me your father was a Seeker too!"
"I didn't know." He paused looking at the plaque and the other names. "Erin, is that your mum?"
"Yes, Xenia Lyancomp was my mother. She was killed by You-Know-Who a month before…umm…when I was a year old."