Chapter 5: A New Game and a New Feeling

*The Next Morning*

The sun shined through the windows of the castle, every student was up and about, all except the LN gang. Akko was still snoring away, fast asleep, Diana was sitting on the bed next to her, switching between reading and watching Akko, just so she'd be the one to greet her in the morning, as for Chariot...well, she was down in the common room, in front of the fireplace, practicing her spells. And she was back to her normal self, the Polyjuice Potion wore off while she was sleeping. She wanted to be sure she knew how spellcasting worked so she wouldn't slip up and use her old way.

Akko groaned in exhaustion as she slowly woke up, rubbing her eyes and stretching. Diana heard her groaning and looked away from her book to see Akko sitting up and looking around.

"Morning Akko, sleep well?"

Akko look toward Diana with a small smile on her face, "Morning Diana, I almost did, I had an amazing dream, but it ended too soon, it was just getting good."

Diana perked an eyebrow in interest, "What was it about?"

Akko widened her eyes, she didn't want to tell her that her dream was about them, but she knew Diana would figure it out eventually,

"It was...about...me and you, we were in this tower with a lot of stuff based around...astronomy I think."

Diana, kept a calm face, but was filled with joy, "I see, did anything happen?"

Akko hesitated to continue, but did anyway, "Well, it was during a beautiful sunset, we were...holding hands...and I had my head resting on your shoulder…"

At this point, Diana was on the brink of wanting to smile so hard, but she did her best to hold it back.

"And when we looked at each other, the dream suddenly ended." Akko looked down in sadness, she wished it didn't end, but dreams can be hard to control.

Diana put her book down and walked over to her friend, she wrapped her arm around her to comfort her.

"I know what you mean, dreams can be complicated, sometimes you have full control, and others, well, it's like you're on a set track without a clear stopping point."

Akko turned to Diana and looked at her with a look of content, she slowly leaned in, hoping that she would get what she wanted in her dream.

"Hey girls!" Chariot burst in causing Akko to back off much to her dismay, "Phoenix has something to tell us."

Akko and Diana got dressed and made their way downstairs, where Phoenix was waiting,

"Ah, perfect, you're up, I have something I wanna show you."

The three of them looked at each other in curiosity,

"What is it, something magical?" Akko asked with stars in her eyes.

"You bet, I already got the others to meet us there. So, let's not keep them waiting."

So, they grabbed their wands and followed Phoenix to a corridor on the seventh floor, where the rest of the LN gang was waiting.

"So, what is it that you wanted to show us?" Lotte asked,

"Something that may help when it comes to giving private lessons."

They walk up to a wall...with nothing on it...it was just a wall.

"Uh...this is it?" Phoenix looked at Amanda with a look of reassurance, "Give it a sec."

After a few seconds, something unbelievable happened, a large door formed in the wall, and it opened revealing a large room that would be used for duelling practice.

"Welcome to the Room of Requirement, a special room that very few people know about. It takes the form of whatever the user needs."

"So, if you needed a silent place to read, it would give you a place with lots of books?" Chariot asked.

"Yeah, that's the basic point of it. I was hoping to use this room to teach you girls, how to fight using magic. That is if you're interested."

Amanda stepped forward and said, "I'm in, I think I may enjoy some magic fighting."

"The correct term is Dueling, and I'm in too," Lotte said stepping forward.

Sucy was looking around taking in the sights, after thinking for a sec, she smiled, "Count me in."

Jasmika and Constanze stepped forward and both said, "Us too."

Chariot was hesitant at first, but she started to trust Phoenix after what he said at the Sorting Ceremony, she gripped her wand and stepped forward, "Let's do it."

Akko and Diana looked at each other and nodded. "We're in, let's see what we can learn from this."

Phoenix smiled, "Nice, we can start tomorrow, a day before classes start."

Everyone nodded in agreement,

"Uh, question?" Constanze raised her hand to get Phoenix's attention,

"Yes, Constanze?"

"Are you sure we're allowed to do this?"

"Don't worry, I asked the headmistress, she is totally cool with this."

She doesn't even know, he was planning on teaching them in secret and had no intention of telling McGonagall.

"Ok, I have a feeling people are going to be roaming around the school soon, so why don't you girls tour around while you still can, get to know your surroundings."

Everyone agreed.

"I'd suggest heading to the Quidditch pitch first, I have a feeling you may find something that will interest you."

They did just that, they walked toward the large area that Phoenix described.

"Quidditch, huh? Anyone know what Quidditch is?" Diana asked.

Amanda ran up to the front, "I might be able to explain, I took the liberty of reading up on it. Quidditch is a wizarding sport played on broomsticks. It is the most popular and most well-known game among wizards and witches, and, the equivalent to Muggles' passion for football."

"Really? How is it played?" Akko asked.

"Well, the game is played by two teams of seven people: three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper, and a Seeker, and involves four balls, a Quaffle, two Bludgers, and a Golden Snitch. The object of the game is to score more points than your opponent. Each goal is worth ten points and catching the Snitch is worth one-hundred fifty points. The game ends when the Snitch is caught or an agreement is reached between the captains of both teams. Some games can go on for many days if the Snitch is not caught."

Everyone just stared, it was clear they didn't quite understand.

"Heh, it sounds pretty complicated, but I'm sure Phoenix suggested the Pitch first so we can see it in action."

Everyone could agree with that, as they made their way to the Quidditch Pitch.

Once they reached the Pitch they were immediately greeted by a ball, a bit larger than a shot-put ball, passing right by their faces. They stood there for a bit, recovering from their shock when a Ravenclaw boy flew down,

"Sorry about that, nasty little buggers Bludgers are, but as long as you stay off the pitch and in the stands, you should be fine."

They all nodded in understanding, still slightly shocked, all except Amanda, who was staring at the boy on the broom, she felt something she never felt.

"Heh, that's a...nice broom."

"Thanks, a Nimbus 2000, kinda old, but it's great for Quidditch. I'm guessing you're all first years, am I right?"

Lotte managed to recover to answer his question, "Yeah, we're also not fully familiar with Quidditch, or how flying works."

"Oh, you're those Luna Nova witches, I see two of you are in my house."

"Yep, I'm Lotte and this is Constanze." Constanze nodded with a straight face.

The others introduced themselves as well, "I'm Akko this is Diana and Chariot."

"Name's Sucy."

Jasmika was too busy eating that last of the food she stole from the feast, but Amanda,

"I'm Amanda, the best flier at LN."

Diana responded, "I would say most reckless, but it's a matter of opinion."

Amanda glared at Diana, she was pissed that she would say that in front of someone she was interested in.

"Nice to meet you, my name's Ross Silver, 4th year and a Beater for the Ravenclaw team."

Everyone was intrigued, Amanda especially, she wanted to see him in action but also was thinking that it may not happen for a while.

"Is it possible if we could see a practice game of Quidditch? We want to understand how it works."

Ross thought for a second before responding, "You could, but the others won't be here for another 2 hours, so why don't I give you a small flying lesson. Will, that work?"

Amanda was immediately interested, as was everyone else, Akko was hesitant but she wanted to give it a chance.

After the Bludgers were put away, they followed Ross to a small broomstick storage closet, he gave each of them a standard, practice broom. They then followed him down to the middle Pitch where he instructed them to place the brooms on the right sides of them.

"Ok, now place your right hand over your broom and say up."

They all did as they were told, Akko's, Diana's, and Amanda's brooms all shot up into their hands, surprising all of them, the others had a bit of a hard time. Jasmika was, trying, Lotte's was moving but wasn't going up, Chariots was close a couple times, Sucy just stared for a few seconds before attempting...and having it smack her right in her face, leaving her with a mark on her face and her looking very angry, and Constanze was trying but she couldn't say it loud enough.

Once they eventually got their brooms to work with them, Ross continued with his lesson,

"Ok, now I want you to mount your broom, grip it tightly, don't you sliding off the end (And don't say 'That's what she said'). Now, just kick off the ground hard, hover for a bit, then lean forward slightly and touch back down, ready?"

Everyone nodded as they mounted their brooms,

"On 3, 1, 2, 3."

They all slowly hovered off the ground and managed to get down to the ground at different times, except Akko, who was still in the air but was slowly going down.

But before she touched the ground, her broom shot up nearly half a mile and started jerking back and forward, side to side and spinning around.

"Akko, Akko! Hang on!" Ross yelled.

Everyone was worried, Diana and Chariot the most, Akko was just barely holding on, she lost her grip a couple of times, and was slowly started to slide off her broomstick. Ross tried to reach for his wand but remembered that he left it with his school robes. Things turned for the worst when Akko was way above the Pitch and she fell off her broom, everybody's hearts dropped, she was falling fast, flailing her arms and screaming for help.

Out of nowhere, they heard someone scream, "Arresto Momentum!" and just before Akko hit the ground, she suddenly stopped a foot above the ground, and then plopped down without injury.

They looked back and saw, Phoenix, wand out, with a shocked look on his face, "Oh, thank god, I made it."

He put his wand down and walked up to the group,

"Mr. Silver"

"Prof. Kingston"

He leaned down to check Akko, "Are you alright Akko?"

"Yeah, just a bit shaken."

"Understandable, take your time. This wasn't a case of bad flying; your broom was jinxed."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better, aren't you?"

"No, if a broom acts up, it usually just moves on its own, it never moves that erratically though. I don't know who would want to hurt you though."

"Why aren't you broken!?"

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw a girl about 12 years old, and looked pissed.

Phoenix's expression morphed into pure anger, "Nevermind, I found our suspect."

The girl attempted to run, but Phoenix snapped his wand out and a magic stream shot out and grabbed her, pulling his wand back, bringing the girl close to them, on her butt and tied up. She looked up and noticed that the person who caught her was a Professor,

"Uh...heh heh, nice to see you, Prof. Kingston."

"Why? Why did you attempt to fatally harm Miss Kagari? And don't lie to me."

The girl tried to think of an excuse but gave up and told the truth, "I wanted to break her, so she wouldn't get close to my Onii-san."

That response, made Ross facepalm and left everyone but Phoenix looking confused.

"Just to clear this up, this little troublemaker, is my little sister, Rose Silver. She's a 2nd-year and is very close to me, sometimes a bit too close."

That made everyone calm down, but left Amanda a bit steamy.

"I'm guessing she also learned that term from that manga you got her to keep her busy."

"Yeah, the second biggest fucking mistake of my life. So, what are you going to do with her?"

"Hmm...don't know, detention doesn't sound like enough, and I think she may just cause more trouble if she were expelled."

"How about this." Ross interrupted stepping toward his sister, "I'll give her a good punishment that I know will teach her a lesson and she will receive a full year of detention."

"WHAT!?" Rose screamed.

Phoenix thought for a minute, before agreeing, "Sounds fair to me."

He released the binding and put away his wand,

"She's all yours."

Ross grabbed Rose by the ear and pulled her away.

Phoenix turned to Akko who was still a bit shaken, "You want to try that again? This time without anyone jinxing your broom."

Akko agreed as long as he promised he would supervise her carefully. He obviously agreed, and Akko mounted her broom again, this time she was a bit scared but focused all the same.

"3, 2, 1"

She pushed off the ground and hovered for a bit, she then leaned forward and made it back on the ground, safely.

"There, feeling better?"

"Yeah, this is so much easier than flying at LN, almost feels, natural."

Diana walked up to her and gave her a look that would scare a normal person, but Akko knew that was Diana's way of showing she cares. She hugged her tight,

"Don't scare me like that. I can't stand losing you."

Akko returned the hug and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

Phoenix looked at the others that were worried about her, "You have some amazing friends, keep them close."

"I'll leave you girls to continue your tour of the castle, I know you're going to need some time to recover from this...event."

He began to walk away, but was stopped by Constanze,

"You are the one who saved Akko, we may feel better having someone who is familiar with Hogwarts show us around. You're our friend, you're a part of this group of friends too."

Phoenix looked up, everyone nodded making Phoenix feel...almost loved. "Ok, I'll show you around, but if I'm going to be your tour guide, you gotta stay close, alright?"

"Yes, sir." They all said in unison.

"Good, now let's head back to the castle, I have a lot to show you."

They walked through the main doors of the castle to see a ghost flying up through the door to the great hall,

"Nick?"

The ghost reacted to the name and turned around to face them.

"Sir Nicholas, long time no see," Phoenix said.

"Ah, Phoenix, it has been far too long, I heard you became not only the new DADA professor but also the new Head of Gryffindor house. Congrats my boy."

"Thanks, Nick, by the way, how's your effort to get into the Headless Hunt going?"

"Hah, unfortunately, they still won't allow me to join the hunt, but I'm sure they'll let me in eventually."

"Hang in there Nick."

"And who are the girls behind you?"

"Nick, these are the LN witches, girls this is the Ghost of Gryffindor, Nearly Headless Nick, but it's best you call him Sir Nicholas, or just Nick."

Jasmika raised an eyebrow, "Wait, nearly headless, how can someone be nearly headless?"

"Like this." Nick then proceeded to pull his head to the side, almost pulling it off completely, revealing the bloody wound that was left.

Everyone except Sucy and Phoenix winced, Sucy just smiled a bit, and Phoenix had seen it before and was actually intrigued by it. Putting his head back on his shoulders, he made his way up to the staircase to go about his day,

"Ok, so, let's head to the dungeons first, we'll make our way up from there.

END OF CHAPTER