A/n: Oh lookie, another chapter. Well, I'd just like to say bear with me for these next couple of chapters because it might be a wee bit boring. Understand that after the fourth year I have absolutely everything planned in my head, but between now and until then I've got absolutely squat. Right now, I'm working on developing friendships and character growth so it's going to be little tedious and I'll try to speed things along the best I can. Any suggestions are readily welcomed. Thanks for your consideration.
Now, as some of you who had read the original Fairy Dust might have noticed, I have removed the original version of the story from the site. I felt that it reflected badly on me as a writer since I was way immature when I wrote it (although my friends may try and tell you that I'm not any better now) and I was getting annoyed with what I felt was atrocious writing being on display for everyone to see. So I deleted it. It still exists on my computer, though (all 61 chapters), and you can rest assured that I will be borrowing ideas, concepts, and perhaps even whole scenes from it in the future. Now, ON TO THE STORY!
I miss my asterisks and squiggly lines . . . sniffle
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The day of the first flying lesson dawned crisp and cool and the entire Gryffindor tower woke to the melodic sounds of two first year boys screaming at the top of their lungs, "IT'S FLYING DAY!"
After receiving many livid glares from older housemates who wanted nothing more than to cling desperately to the last precious moments of sleep rather than being awoken by a chorus of first year boys, James and Sirius made it out of the common room and down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Both of the boys were literally bouncing in their seats from excitement and drew questioning looks from the students present in the Great Hall.
"You really need to calm down," Lily murmured to Sirius as she looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Just be glad you weren't in our room last night," the boy who Lily thought was called Remus leaned over and whispered to her. "I didn't fall asleep until one in the morning because they were awake and talking about Quidditch and flying."
"It's the best thing in the world!" James exclaimed. "Have you ever seen a Quidditch match? They're bloody amazing! Take Puddlemere United, for example. My dad took me to see one of their games this summer. They're the best team in all of England!"
"No way! Montrose Magpies are WAY better," Sirius said. "They've won the European Championships like thirty times!"
"Puddlemere."
"Magpies."
"Puddlemere!"
"Magpies!"
"PUDDLEMERE!"
"MAGPIES!"
"This is exactly what I listened to all last night," Remus muttered, lowering his head onto the table.
The bickering between Sirius and James went on for a moment more until Megan, who was sitting next to Remus and had been quietly eating her breakfast, dropped her fork onto her plate and cried, "For the love of Merlin, it's just a GAME!" As soon as she had spoken out, James and Sirius instantly quieted and turned to look at her with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Her cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red.
"Just a game?" Sirius whispered, aghast. "Just a game?"
"Look here, little girl, I don't know what you think you're talking about, but Quidditch is much more than a game," James said. "It's-"
"Potter, I'd really hate to have to give you another detention," said Rowan as he walked over to where the group of first years were sitting and placed his hands on Megan's shoulders before giving James a warning look. "McGonagall doesn't take kindly to students harassing other students and I personally do not tolerate people being mean to my little sister."
"I wasn't being mean to her or harassing her!" James protested. Megan silently stared down at her plate. "I was just trying to explain to her that Quidditch is much more than a game; it's a way of life!"
"Potter, you don't have to explain to me the wonders of Quidditch," Rowan replied. "I am the Gryffindor team captain. I understand perfectly. Now, if I'm not mistaken, it's time for you to be off to your first flying lesson." James and Sirius looked at each other and leapt out of their seats before running out of the Great Hall. Lily sighed and stood up.
"I'd better go make sure Sirius doesn't hurt himself," she muttered, walking away from the table.
"Rowan, you don't have to protect me from everything and everyone," Megan mumbled. The Head Boy sat down next to her and gave her a hug.
"I'm your big brother; that's my job," he said. She rolled her eyes and stood.
"I'd love to stay and talk with you Rowan, but I'm going to be late for flying," she said as Remus stood up as well. Together, they walked out of the Great Hall, leaving Rowan shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
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"Welcome to flying!" exclaimed a woman with hawk-like features and brown hair that was cropped close to her head. "I am Madam Hooch and I will be your flying instructor. And just between you and me, this is my first year of teaching so go easy on me, okay?" James and Sirius shot each other a conspiring grin. The class was lined up facing each other in two rows. The Slytherins (with whom the Gryffindors were sharing this lesson) had quickly made a point to get as far away from the Gryffindors as they could, some, like Lucius Malfoy, complaining the whole time about the poor quality of brooms offered.
The day was bright and crisp, with only a few clouds in the sky and a light breeze. Lily was grateful for this since she had never flown before and didn't fancy trying to do it in inclement weather. Around her, people were looking nervous, scared, sick, confident, relaxed, or in James and Sirius's case, positively elated. Madam Hooch quickly explained how to call the broom to them and instructed them to try it.
As one, the entire class placed their wand hand over their broom and shouted "UP!" Lily's broom rose about three inches before clattering back to the ground. With a grunt of frustration, she looked up to see if anyone had managed to get his or hers up on the first time. James and Sirius had, along with Lucius and the greasy haired boy from Slytherin. Lily saw that Megan, who was standing next to her, had also managed to get hers on the first try and was looking quite astonished at having done so.
"How'd you do that?" Lily asked. Megan shrugged.
"I-I don't know," she squeaked.
"The broom senses your fear, Lils," Sirius called across from her. "You have to let it know who's boss. If you don't take charge, the broom will never respect you."
"Sirius, it's a big stick with some twigs on the end, not a living creature," Lily retorted which caused Sirius to gasp dramatically and lovingly stroke the broom in his hand.
"And that attitude is exactly why it won't come to you," he muttered, placing a tiny kiss on the handle of his broom.
After the entire class had managed to call their brooms up (Lily's had come on the second try) Madam Hooch demonstrated how to properly mount the broom and had the class follow her example. Once they had mastered that, she showed them how to kick off from the ground to go into a hover and instructed them to follow her example. As Lily kicked off and felt the breeze rush through her hair, she could see why James and Sirius had been so excited for this day to arrive. She glanced over at the pair and saw that they wore nearly identical goofy grins on their faces. A glance to her left showed a different story with Megan. She was shaking and gripping the handle so tightly that her knuckles were almost white. Lily opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it.
Twenty minutes later when the class had learned how turn and how to rise and fall in altitude, a figure strode out onto the lawn. "Madam Hooch!" the figure called. It was McGonagall. "Madame Hooch, I need to speak with you."
"Professor McGonagall, I'm in the middle of a class," Madam Hooch replied.
"It's quite urgent," McGonagall said. "It won't take but a second."
"Very well," said the flying instructor as she landed and dismounted and regarded the class. "I want you lot to practice your kick off, your hovering if you haven't already found your balance, your turning, and going up and down. If I catch one of trying to move forward or backward, you'll get a detention faster than you can say "Quidditch". Are we clear?" The class nodded obediently and Madam Hooch walked off to the castle with Professor McGonagall.
As soon as the large doors of the castle had clanged shut, James looked at Sirius and raised an eyebrow. Sirius looked questioningly at James for a moment but a grin quickly spread across his face as well.
Dear God, are they communicating telepathically now? Lily wondered, having seen the exchange. The two boys immediately brought their brooms up in altitude to about twenty feet, versus the five feet above ground the rest of the class was at. They flew away from each other, completely disregarding Madam Hooch's rule about not going forward or backward, and turned to face each other when there was about a hundred feet between them. Lily rose to the level that they were at (which was perfectly allowable of course), and shouted, "You boys are going to get in so much trouble!"
"Don't worry about it Evans," James called to her before turning to Sirius. "Mr. Black, I challenge you to a duel!"
"I accept!" Sirius replied. Lily bit her lip and decided to go back down to where the rest of the class was watching the two boys in curiosity.
"Ready? GO!" cried James. He and Sirius both bent low on their broom handles as they accelerated straight towards each other in a collision course. A few people gasped as they got closer, but Sirius pulled away five feet from hitting James.
"Ha! You're the chicken!" James cried triumphantly as the boys flew back to their starting points. Sirius muttered something under his breath.
"Chicken," Remus remarked in disbelief. "They're going to kill themselves!" The boys started again, flying straight towards each other, people in the rest of the class biting their nails. It was James who pulled out this time, three feet from impact.
"One more time!" he called before Sirius could make a remark.
"Boys, stop it! You're going to hurt yourselves!" Lily cried, but the boys ignored her and flew back to the starting positions. The attraction of the game had worn off for some of the people in the class and they had chosen to practice their movements as Madam Hooch had instructed.
"GO!" James shouted, and the boys zoomed towards each other, a look of extreme determination on both of their faces. Neither one wanted to be the chicken. They got closer and closer and neither one showed any sign of pulling out. Thirty feet, twenty feet, fifteen, ten, eight, five, three, two-
CRASH!
A crunching of brooms was heard followed by a scream. Lily looked up in horror and frowned when she saw James sitting on his broom looking quite surprised, Sirius hanging onto his broom by his hands, and the coffee obsessed Slytherin being dangled in the air from the back of the robes by Lucius Malfoy.
What had happened was this: At one foot away from impact, Sirius chickened and sharply pulled away to avoid hitting James. However, by turning so sharply, he had managed to crash straight into Meredith who was practicing her broom movements as had been instructed and had unfortunately been at the same altitude as the two boys. The collision had knocked both people from their brooms. Sirius managed to grab hold of his but Meredith was sent flying. Lucius Malfoy had seen her launch into the air and deftly plucked her out of the air before she smashed into the ground. Needless to say, Meredith was not happy.
"YOU IDIOT!" she screamed as Lucius slowly lowered her to the ground and Sirius swung up onto his broom. "YOU GIGANTIC OAF! I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! DOES YOUR HEAD NOT CONTAIN ONE OUNCE OF COMMON SENSE? OR ARE YOU COMPLETELY DAFT AND BONKERS?" Lucius had now reached the ground and set her down before quickly flying as far away from her as he could. By now Meredith was stomping around on the ground and shaking her first angrily at a very surprised looking Sirius. Obviously the boy had not expected to be screamed at by a very pissed off, coffee obsessed, tiny Asian girl today.
"And FURTHERMORE," she continued, her voice getting slightly hoarse, "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of ELDERBERRIES!" With a final frustrated scream, Meredith delivered a swift kick to her broom that was lying on the ground after falling from the air before stalking towards the castle muttering things like "Bloody flying, stupid brooms, freaking idiot boy," under her breath the whole way.
"Remind me never to get on her bad side," James mumbled, glancing at Sirius who was watching her walk towards the castle, utterly speechless.
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After the flying lesson, the students were treated to a break before their next class. James and Sirius managed to track down Remus and were following him down a long corridor. "What's his name again?" James whispered to Sirius. The latter scratched his head.
"Er . . . Ronnicus? Romulus? No! It's Remus!" he exclaimed.
"Right. OY REMUS!" James called. The boy in front of them stopped and slowly turned around.
"Yes?" he asked quietly. The two boys quickly moved to either side of Remus and slung an arm around the boy's shoulders.
"Please, step into our office," Sirius said.
"You have an office?" Remus asked skeptically, quirking an eyebrow.
"Well, broom closet actually," James muttered as he and Sirius ushered Remus into a door on their right. "We're looking into relocating." Sirius shut the door to the closet. Now the only light was coming from a small window. The closet was dank and dusty, causing Remus to sneeze a few times.
"You guys aren't going to hex me and leave me here, are you?" he asked, shifting nervously.
"Of course not!" Sirius cried. "Although, hexing is part of the reason why you're here." Remus's eyes widened and his hand inched towards his wand.
"Relax, we're not going to do anything to you," James assured him. "We actually have a proposition for you."
"And that would be?"
"Well, Mr. Black and I found out that as much as we despised each other, we despised a certain Slytherin even more," James explained. "We realized that if we put aside our differences, we could bring hell down upon this poor, unsuspecting slime ball. But then a glorious question entered our heads. Why limit our talents to this one grease bucket? We could wreak havoc on the entire student population of Hogwarts!"
"I fail to see where I come into this," Remus interjected.
"You see, as much as Jamesie and I pretend to be fabulously intelligent, we're actually incredibly stupid," Sirius replied. "We don't think before we act, we have no planning skills whatsoever, and we only have a minimal knowledge of spells that could be used in pranking. What our proposal boils down to is this: You're smart, we're not. We need you to help us otherwise our little venture will fail miserably. Yes, you will be risking getting into trouble, but Mr. Potter and I are prepared to make you a generous offer. If you agree to be our resident smart guy you will be given full immunity to any pranking by us unless you start it or we get really bored, we will do our best to protect you from any pranks from other people just as you would be expected to do for us, and you would be included as part of our group." Remus sat in silence for a moment, looking back and forth between the two boys and thinking it over.
"So, basically you guys would be my friends?" he asked softly. James and Sirius quickly glanced at each other.
"Basically, yeah," James answered as Sirius nodded. A wide smile spread on Remus's face.
"I'll do it."
"Welcome to the group!" Sirius exclaimed as he shook Remus's hand and James patted the boy on the back. The smile never left Remus's face.
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Later that evening, Remus and Megan were seated on the couch in front of the fire attempting to do a lengthy Charms essay that was due at the end of the week. They had managed to get about three inches into the required three feet of parchment when Lily entered the common room, the book bag slung over her shoulder full almost to bursting. She spotted the pair and quickly walked over to them. "Are you guys working on the Charms essay?" she asked hopefully. They nodded and she sighed in relief. "Would you mind terribly if I joined you?"
"Not at all," Megan said with a warm smile. "In fact, we could probably use your brain. You're really good at Charms." Lily shook her head as she sat next to Megan.
"I'm not that good," she replied. "I just understand most of it." At that moment Sirius bounded down the boys' staircase, sheets of parchment clutched in his hand.
"Please tell me that at least one of you understands this," he said desperately, skidding to a halt in front of the trio, a few papers fluttering to the floor.
"Lily's going to help us," Remus said, indicating the girl with the feathery end of the quill.
"Oh. Cool," Sirius replied, flopping into a chair near the couch. "So how does the levitating charm work?" Lily opened her mouth to reply, but just as she was about to, the portrait hole opened and James stepped through, grumbling.
"I hate Charms," he muttered as he passed by the couch.
"Sit down, Potter," Sirius said. "Lily's going to help us." James breathed a sigh of relief and sat down in a chair at the opposite end of the couch. "Where's Petey at?" Sirius questioned.
James shrugged. "Probably eating," he mumbled. Now that everyone was settled, Lily began explaining the material and the rest of the group began to frantically write the notes down. Although they didn't know it at the time, this was the first of many fireside study sessions the five Gryffindors would hold in the years to come.
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A/n: And thus ends another chapter. Hope you liked it! It might be a couple of weeks until I plunk out the next one due to a bunch of stuff I have happening.
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