It's time for another chapter. In this chapter, Madam Hooch is going to teach Mary how to fly.
After all, her father was a proud Quidditch player.
She might as well give it a shot.
I think we're progressing through the first arc nicely. You can probably guess what it's called. Yes, it's Mary Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
And yeah, I probably won't stop with just one book. That seems a bit easy for me.
Chapter 7: I Believe I Can Fly
Not long after Halloween, Mary discovered that she would be taking flying class today.
"Maybe if you do well at flying class, you'll be allowed to play Quidditch." noted Ron.
"Quidditch?" asked Mary.
"It's the wizarding sport. It involves flying broomsticks." explained the Weasley.
And other things.
But he figured Mary would learn those things as she went along. Why else was she at Hogwarts if not to learn?
"Oh…" comprehended the girl.
She noticed several hoops outside while wandering Hogwarts.
Now she knew what they were for.
This time, their teacher was going to be Madam Hooch.
"Alright, class. Riding a broom can be dangerous, so I expect you to listen carefully." explained Madam Hooch.
She doesn't want anyone to fall off.
Fortunately, nobody did fall off.
Well, one person did.
His name was Neville Longbottom.
He had been nervous and his hands started sweating…which made the broomstick slippery.
"Oww!" exclaimed the boy.
"Are you alright?" asked Mary.
"I broke my wrist!" exclaimed Neville.
Draco let out a laugh, but Mary slapped him in the face.
"I'll stop laughing." said Malfoy.
"Id you broke your wrist, you'll be going to the infirmary. I don't expect any of you to ride the broomsticks while I'm gone, since you're still learning. That would be reckless." spoke Madam Hooch.
The students nodded.
But somebody didn't listen.
His name was Draco Malfoy.
"Hey Mary, I dare you to chase me if you can!" exclaimed Malfoy.
"It appears that since Madam Hooch is teaching a flying class what she's telling you is flying out your ears." retorted Mary.
"Oh, but there's a prize in it for you!" shouted Draco.
"Is it a chocolate frog?" asked the girl.
Not that she would break the rules for them.
"Even better!" exclaimed the blonde.
He pulled out the Remembrall that Neville had. Since he was forgetful, having something that told you when you forgot something was pretty useful.
Seemed he had dropped it during broomstick training.
"That belongs to Neville! Give it back!" demanded Mary.
"You'll have to catch me first!" exclaimed Draco.
She sighed.
"I don't have a choice in this matter, do I?" asked Mary.
"I guess not." answered Ron.
He just hoped that she would retrieve the Remembrall before Madam Hooch got back.
She flew towards Malfoy and tried to grab the Remembrall from him.
Ron noted that watching Malfoy and Mary made him dizzy.
The Gryffindors and Slytherins wondered how it would turn out.
Parvati was rooting for Mary.
Pansy was rooting for Draco.
Hedwig wondered why nobody asked her how to fly.
People said that owls were wise.
Eventually, Mary obtained the Remembrall. It was lucky that Draco didn't break it. Would there be a funeral in remembrance of it?
"It seems you got the Remembrall. Oh well. I don't need it anyway. I have the memory of an elephant!" exclaimed Draco.
"Did you remember to watch where you're going?" asked Mary.
"Huh?" questioned the boy.
Draco suddenly crashed into a tree.
"Ow…" said Malfoy.
"Alright, now to get back to the ground and dismount my broom before a teacher notices I'm up here." said Mary to herself.
"Mary Lily Potter! Get down here!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall.
"Too late." spoke the girl.
Slowly, she went back to the ground.
"I'm sorry about flying without permission. I'll head back to my tower." spoke Mary.
"Do introduce yourselves to the Quidditch team while you're there, would you? They're going to want you as their new seeker." said Professor McGonagall.
"Huh? Me?" asked Mary.
Perhaps she wasn't in trouble after all.
Draco wondered what he had done. Was Mary going to be part of the Quidditch team? That had not been his intention.
"As for you Malfoy, you just lost ten points for Slytherin for theft and disobeying Madam Hooch." said Professor McGonagall.
She had witnessed him pilfering the Remembrall.
Draco growled. He had lost points for Slytherin, again!
This was not going to make his peers happy with him.
They expected more from a Malfoy.
He decided he was going to get his revenge.
Sure enough, the quidditch team did want Mary to be their new seeker, as McGonagall had said.
The last seeker had left the team after getting a Golden Snitch stuck in his mouth.
Oliver Wood himself approved of that, though he noted Mary was rather young to be a Quidditch player.
"I'm grateful to have you here, but if you're going to play Quidditch, you need to know the rules." explained Oliver.
He handed her what she needed to know about the game.
The first role was the Chaser. Their goal was to place the quaffle (the ball) through the hoops.
Every time that happened, the team scored ten points.
The second role was the Keeper. Their goal was to stop enemy Chasers from putting the quaffle through their hoops.
The third role was the Beaters. Their goal was to keep the Bludgers away from their teammates and towards their enemies.
Bludgers were balls that knocked players off their brooms.
Last but not least was the Seeker. They were the most important role of all.
Their objective was to catch the golden snitch. The golden snitch was extremely fast, but if you caught it, you scored 150 points.
If you caught the Golden Snitch before the other Seeker did, your victory was practically guaranteed.
"Hmm, the position of Seeker makes the Chaser and Keeper positions kind of redundant, wouldn't you say?" questioned Mary right after she finished reading.
"Yes, but they also make the game more exciting. Besides, the more points we get, the greater chances of us winning the House Cup." explained Oliver.
"You can earn house points by playing Quidditch?" asked the girl who lived.
"Yes. That is why it is important that we keep practicing." said the captain.
"I'm with you," nodded the scarred girl.
"By the way. your Remembrall is glowing red. Seems you've forgotten something." explained Oliver Wood.
"I did?" asked Mary.
Sure enough, it was red as her house emblem.
"You're right! I forgot to give this back to Neville!" exclaimed the girl.
How ironic.
The Remembrall turned clear.
Neville was happy to have it back.
"I went through a hassle to get that back for you." noted Mary. "So I'm glad you're happy."
"I owe you one." remarked the boy.
After leaving the infirmary, Draco approached her.
"What is it, Malfoy?" asked the girl. She needed to practice riding her broomstick.
"Hey, Mary! I challenge you to a duel!" exclaimed Draco.
"I don't think that's a good idea." noted Mary.
"Are you scared?" taunted the boy.
"Yeah. Scared that I'll lose points for my house." answered the girl.
"We'll do it late at night, where nobody will see us!" exclaimed Draco.
"I don't know…." said Mary.
"It'll be fun!" shouted the boy.
"For you, maybe." answered the girl.
Draco handed Mary a note.
It told her where exactly to meet him.
"Well, it would be a good way to teach Draco a lesson." noted the girl.
Later that night…
"You do realize that if you do this, you risk getting caught by Filch, don't you?" asked Hermione.
If that happened, she would likely lose points for Gryffindor.
It could cause them to lose the house cup.
"Who's Mr. Filch?" asked Mary.
She was still familiarizing with the staff of Hogwarts.
Though she knew a lot of them at this point.
"He's the caretaker, who's always looking for opportunities to get students in trouble. If he sees you, you're on a one-way trip to Professor McGonagall's office." explained Hermione.
"Sounds like you don't like him." spoke the girl.
"He's not the most charismatic staff member at Hogwarts, I can tell you that much. So are you sure you wish to do this?" asked Granger.
"I figure Draco won't leave me alone unless I duel him." noted Mary.
Though if she lost, Malfoy would probably laugh in her face. And his laugh was annoying. It would get stuck in her head, too.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." answered her roommate. "Though if you do beat Draco, do tell me about it."
She would like to wipe the grin off his face.
"Let's see now, he told me to meet him at the trophy room. Is this it?" asked the girl.
She opened the door.
Instead of trophies, she found a giant three-headed dog.
"Something tells me that's the wrong room." noted Mary.
The dog barked at her to leave.
"I can get you flea powder if you're feeling grumpy." answered the girl.
The dog told her that was a nice offer, but kindly requested that she leave.
Mary closed the door.
"That was scary." noted the girl.
Now she knew why the Hogwarts teachers didn't want her up and about after hours.
There were scary things out there.
Although, maybe this was where Hagrid put the Sorceror's Stone.
Nobody would try stealing from a room if there was a giant dog guarding it.
Right?
Suddenly, she noticed Neville wasn't in his dorm.
"Neville?" asked Mary.
"Mary? You're awake?" questioned Neville.
Fortunately, his hand was already healed up.
"Why are you awake?" asked the Gryffindor girl.
"I forgot the password to our tower." explained the boy.
Sure enough, his Remembrall was red.
Why was it so hard to remember?
At least it was effective against keeping the other houses out.
"I'll help you get in." spoke the girl.
She could duel Draco…later.
"Thanks." answered Neville. He wasn't sure what he would do without her.
Incidentally, the password for the week was pig snout.
It reminded her of her honorary brother Dudley.
How was he doing at Smeltings this time of night?
As it turned out, Dudley had a nightmare…over broccoli.
"Aaaaahhhh!" exclaimed the boy.
"Dudley, broccoli isn't going to take over the world. Now go to sleep." explained the roommate, a boy about his age who was skinnier than he was, for his family put him on a healthy diet.
Dudley went to sleep…
…and dreamed of asparagus.
He screamed like a little girl.
"This is going to be a long night." remarked the roommate.
Meanwhile, Draco wondered where Mary was.
He planned to cast Petrificus Totalus on here, and then pour pumpkin juice on her face.
But she didn't show up.
"Well, this was a waste of time." spoke Draco.
He decided to head back to Slytherin Dungeon.
Hopefully the prefect wouldn't notice he was out of bed past curfew.
Likewise, Mary and Neville headed back to Gryffindor Tower.
However, they found the fat lady was gone.
The portrait was completely blank, as if somebody had sandblasted the painting.
"Where'd she go?" asked Mary.
"Oh no…" answered Neville.
How were they going to get into Gryffindor Tower now?
Suddenly, they noticed a black cat lurking around nearby.
"Hey, look! It's a cat!" exclaimed Mary.
Neville gasped.
He recognized that cat.
She began to pet the cat, whose fur was as black as her hair.
"Mary, stop!" exclaimed the boy.
"Don't worry! Black cats being unlucky are just a superstition!" shouted Mary.
"That's not any just cat! It belongs to Mr. Filch!" exclaimed Neville.
"Huh?" asked the girl.
"Meowwwwww!" exclaimed Mrs. Norris.
"Well, what do we have here?" questioned Mr. Filch, who was holding a lantern.
"Uh-oh." said Mary.
A short while later…
"Why were you up after hours?" asked McGonagall.
She was disappointed with the two of them.
"I forgot the password to the tower." explained Neville.
"I got challenged to a duel to Draco Malfoy." spoke Mary.
"Wands are not a toy, Mary." warned McGonagall. Some Slytherins thought that and they ended up being transfigured into animals. It really made Madam Pomfrey shake her head.
"I know…" answered the girl.
"You were going to challenge Malfoy to a duel?" asked Neville.
He wasn't sure that was a good idea.
Though he wasn't too fond of Draco himself. He heard rumors about his parents. Bad ones.
"Yeah. But I decided not to after I found out you were stuck outside the tower." noted Mary.
She figured that Neville was more important than Malfoy.
"In that case, I think I'll give you a warning this time. But I don't expect this to happen again." warned McGonagall.
Dumbledore did say that it was the choices that you made that decided who you were.
Mary nodded.
Her compassion was admirable.
Mr. Filch frowned. He wasn't happy with how things had turned out. It looked like nobody was getting punished.
"As for Malfoy, I know just what to do with him." answered McGonagall.
"I'm all ears!" exclaimed Mr. Filch, whose frown on his face was now a smile.
The next day…
As punishment for attempting underage dueling, Malfoy was being forced to scrub some trophies.
"Hurry up! I don't have all day!" exclaimed Filch.
"Meowwww!" shouted Mrs. Norris.
Draco was angry that Mary decided to squeal on him.
He was going to make her pay.
The blonde boy just needed to come up with a revenge scheme.
Well, he would come up with something. He was sure of it.
He was a Slytherin, after all.
"Work faster!" demanded Mr. Filch.
"I'm trying!" exclaimed the boy.
Uh-oh! It looks like Draco set a trap for Mary this whole time.
She shouldn't trust people like him.
Luckily, he didn't get away with it. Otherwise it wouldn't be as funny.
In the next chapter, Mary is going to play Quidditch.
You think she'll have fun?