Not Potter and the Stupid Stone

Chapter 5

Laura

I slept through Study Hall, honestly what else was I to do, it's not like we had homework, pondering what had just happened. I knew Noel was supper stuck up, but honestly, what just happened? And then, as I was walking to potions, it just got worse.

"Can't stop thinking about me can you, Fawley?" Draco sneered, slyly.

"I have no clue what you're talking about." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, Goyle told me you were talking about me, got a crush, have you? Well, don't. Like I told you before, I don't concern myself with filth and mud." And without another word he turned and left.

I watched him sashay down the hall before storming after him, he had no right to fly around the school doing whatever he wanted to. I ran and caught up to him before he could turn the corner.

"Hey Draco," I practically yelled, "I was only saying how it's a pity Hogwarts has to endure hosting such a nasty, pale little, slithering snake as you."

Draco looked at me, enraged as his cronies began scoffing behind him.

"Draco, who's this muddy little Gryffindor?"

"Yeah, want us to take care of her?

Draco turned to look at them, drawing his wand, as a cool expression returned to his face.

"Stand back, I got this one covered," He said, now smirking.

"Covered? You wouldn't dare," I sneered, really wishing I had read more about defensive spells when I got my textbooks, transfiguration had just seemed so much cooler. I mean, turning a shoe into a rabbit, or making a shield. There's really no competition.

"It's no more than a dirty little blood traitor like you deserves." He said coolly.

His cronies jeered in the background, "Yeah! Filthy. Blood traitor."

"Shut it, Crabbe, Goyle, I need to make sure the job is done properly." Draco silenced them, as he raised his wand to point at my face.

I readied my feet; I would just have to dodge whatever spells he threw my way.

"Laura!?" A voice called from behind me, as a certain bushy head appeared.

"Go away Hermione, I've got this" I told her steadily.

"You know you can't do this; you'll get in loads of trouble for fighting. Please don't do anything, I'll just run and get McGonagall."

"Step away, muggle," Draco yelled, "This isn't about you."

"Another fight, I see," A cold voice drawled out from behind me. "First that Avery girl before lunch and now," he pointed at me, as if waiting for a name.

"Laura Fawley," I replied neatly.

"Miss Fawley. This new batch of Gryffindor's is turning out to be very disappointing. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the year one of you brats finally gets expelled."

"Professor," I began before being cut off by a sharp tisk from the professor.

"Draco, you, of course, weren't the one to instigate this fight. Now were you?"

Draco bowed his head, repentantly, "of course not, Professor Snape, Sir. It's just, these Gryffindor's keep challenging me and well, I can't embarrass Slytherin, can I?

The Professor, Snape, considered this before responding, "I suppose you can't, ten points from Gryffindor for starting fights"

I tried to interject, "But-"

"That will be all, I suggest you leave now. Unless you want to lose any more points?"

"Come on, Laura," Hermione said, "I think I left a quill in Study Hall, we still have time to go back and grab it."

As we walked away, I looked back to see Professor Snape, still standing there, smirking slightly, like he was pleased with himself, before addressing Hermione.

"I didn't think you would give up an opportunity be early to class."

"I would when our next class is his," She replied, glumly.

I guess that's how I ended up dragging myself out of potions and to another meal spent only in Hermione's company.

Noel

By the end of the week I was still not on speaking terms with Laura. That meant that my only friends were boys, and not going to lie, in a way it was kind of easy, but it was also kind of boring. Once we had explained to Harry everything about the wizarding world we could think of the boys resolved to only talking about food. However, today is our first flying lesson and that means we found a new topic of conversation for lunch, brooms.

"Flying's going to be brilliant!" Ron cheered. "Mum wouldn't get me my own broom, so I always had to use Bill's old one."

"Wish they let first years bring brooms." I sighed, "bet my Nimbus 1700 is better than the school brooms."

"Nimbus 1700?!" Ron said, shocked, "that's only a model older than the Nimbus 2000!"

"Yeah, my parents wouldn't get me the 2000, since I can't bring it to school anyway." I replied.

Harry sat to the side looking very confused, and slightly concerned. That is, until, he spotted a Snowy Owl flying across the room.

"Hedwig!" Harry, suddenly, shouted.

"Who?" I asked, puzzled.

"Harry's owl." Ron said, before turning towards Harry, "what's he got?"

"A letter from Hagrid... an invitation to tea?" He responded.

"Why would he invite you to tea?" I questioned.

"He brought me my Hogwarts letter," his face fell a bit. "Got me away from the Dursley's."

"Cool! I want to meet him. Let's go, Harry!" He chimed, "after flying, of course. You coming, Noel?"

I shrugged, normally I would be repulsed to spend a day with such a human being, however, I really did want to be a "better" person, "No reason not to."

"Brilliant!"

After that the three of us scampered right off to flying, eager for the afternoon to begin. And as we tromped across campus, laughing and flinging ourselves around in the crisp autumn air, I noticed two, somewhat more forlorn, girls watching and following from a distance.

When we finally reached the pitch, we had to wait a minute for the rest of the students to gather before, the teacher, Madame Hooch, could begin. She assigned for us to line up, each person standing to the left side of a broomstick.

All of us the first years made our attempts at picking up our brooms and some, rather odd, results came into play. Many struggled to lift their broom an inch, at first, leaving it to hover above the ground. Yet, others, seemingly those who had flown before, lifted theirs much easier.

"The bloody broom won't float!" Ron groaned.

"Just speak a little clearer, maybe?" Harry said, almost laughing, after easily lifting his broom.

"How'd you get yours up so fast?" He asked, jealously.

"Seriously, though." I said, aggravated. "How? It's like she glued the things to the ground."

"It takes a while to get used to." From a few brooms a way, Laura happened to chime in.

I wanted to take her advice, but something in me just wouldn't let me, "And how would you know?" I scoffed.

"Haven't you ever tried riding one before?" she questioned. "Normally, it's easier to lift if you have experience."

"Of course, I have." I muttered, "I guess these old Cleansweeps are just more temperamental than my Nimbus 1700."

"I got it!" Ron piped up, his broom hovering off the ground. "Try putting more focus into it, Noel."

I stared at the broom. Why couldn't I do this? I had done it a million times before, what could be different? I looked up at Ron and then across at Laura, who was still sneering. I needed to be friends with her, the only reason I was trying to be nice to people was because of her. I heard my father's voice echoing through my head, "No one wants to be associated with a weakling." And then suddenly I could see it, the reason I was so stressed about this whole thing. The reason I couldn't get my stupid broom off the ground.

-Flashback-

I ripped open the packaging on the box, a nimbus 1700, the newest model around. I turned to the only other person in the room, Javier, my parents had to spend the day attending to important pureblood business, but that didn't matter. Even if it was my birthday. "Are you ready to try it out?" Javier smiled. "Of course!" I responded. We ran through the house and out back, past the apple orchard and onto the miniature quidditch pitch. It was only half the size of a full-sized pitch and had no stadiums, but it was perfect for learning to fly. "You just stick your right hand out and say, "up"." Javier instructed, carefully placing the broom on the ground. "What if it doesn't work?" I worried. Javier laughed, "You'll be fine, you're an Avery after all! The purest of all families, only blood traitors and muggleborns have trouble flying. Give it a shot."

-end of flashback-

Only blood traitors and muggleborns have trouble flying and that's what I was now, a blood traitor. Had I made a mistake? In one week, I had gone from the purest to scum. How had I so quickly forgotten everything my family had taught me? I needed to find Javier, now. "Screw this." I said, kicking the broom across the ground."

"Great problem solving" Laura sneered, "are you going to call it a filthy blood traitor next?"

I stared at Laura, a million insults brewing behind my eyes, yet something else entirely was it that I said, "What right do I have got to say such things when you all have made me a traitor too." I choked out before running away from the pitch, hot, shimmering tears threatening to spill down my face.

Laura

"What is wrong with her? Like, sheesh, she isn't good at one thing." I muttered, "not the end of the world, honestly."

"I think you both need to calm down." Ron sighed, "she was really excited for this and she's been trying so hard to be a better person. She even agreed to go down to Hagrid's with us, and you've seen how most of the pureblood's feel towards him."

I thought back to the disgusted look that crosses Draco's face every time he sees the man, "Yeah well, why won't she just apologize to me then?" I questioned. "Why be so cryptic about everything and then just storm off?"

"What do I look like? A psychic? Have this conversation with her, not behind her back." He added. Then to himself, "She really is trying."

"You don't even know what you're talking about! I don't even think we know what this fight is about, for goodness sake!" I said, raising my voice.

"Can we just stop, before another person gets bullied into leaving?" Harry said, chiming in.

"You think I bullied her?" I asked, incredulously.

"She didn't seem to be talking to you at all, until you jumped right in with the insults," Harry sniped coolly in a tone that he usually only reserved for Draco or Professor Snape.

From across the field, another commotion could be heard, and, at this point, Madame Hooch was starting to get more than a little annoyed.

Instead of pushing slightly off the ground, as Madame Hooch had instructed, Neville had slammed his feet into the ground, likely out of nerves, causing him to ascend far above the castle walls at an alarming rate..

"I'm so done with this." I groaned, staring at Neville's far disappearing figure, before throwing my broom down and walking away. It was quite a nice day, and one that I certainly couldn't let go to waste, so I decided to just relax under a tree by the great lake and wait for my next class to start. Who knew being an eleven-year-old was so hard? I sighed, thinking back to what Noel and my's argument was truly about. I had been trying to give Noel notes, return the favor; Draco had made fun of her, she lashed out; I had just been trying to get her to see reason, and then she stormed out. There had to be something I was missing. Why had she gotten so upset over falling asleep, it was just one class and quite a few other students had been dosing off. Wait a second, had she been embarrassed? But you only get that embarrassed when you were trying to impress people or make up for something. Who was Noel holding such high standards for?