CHAPTER 6
The first two weeks flew by. Even with a pile of homework, Summer felt happier than she'd ever had. Pretty soon, they were having their first flying lesson with the Ravenclaws.
"Good afternoon, first-years." Madam Hooch, the flying teacher, greeted them all.
"Good afternoon, Madam Hooch." All the first-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws chorused.
"Now, stand to the right side of your broomstick. Hold out your hand and say 'up'. The broomstick should rise up to your hand." Madam Hooch directed.
"Up!" "Up!" The class began to follow Madam Hooch's instructions. Summer's broom flew straight up her hand, in Summer's great surprise. She was the only one who managed to get her broomstick to her hand. Once everyone had gotten their brooms, Madam Hooch moved on to the next directions, including teaching them how to sit on their brooms without sliding off the end.
"Now, kick onto the air. Then slowly come down." Madam Hooch said. Pretty soon, the whole class was able to fly up and come back down.
"Fly around for a few minutes and be careful." Madam Hooch allowed them. Summer kicked off and flew straight up the air, whizzing. She almost hit Ashley by accident.
"Brilliant! Anyone who'd like to join the Quidditch team come and see me after class." Madam Hooch said, dismissing the class.
"That was so fun!" Ginny smiled enthusiastically.
"I know! Come on, let's get to tea. Hopefully Storm has got the parcel." Ashley whispered to Ginny.
"I'm starving!" Summer had not heard any of Ashley and Ginny talking about her belated birthday present.
As soon as the feast begun, the owls swooped into the Great Hall. Storm was carrying one big parcel and one small parcel. Crystal was carrying a small one too.
"Happy Late Birthday!" Ashley pressed the small parcel into Summer's hands. Crystal also dropped her parcel into Summer's hands.
"Thanks, guys!" Hugging her friends and blushing uncontrollably, she opened her parcel. Inside was a charm bracelet with five charms: a pegasus, a cat, an owl, a heart and a snow globe.
"It's so pretty! How did you get something like this?" Summer clasped the charm bracelet around her wrist.
"A shop in Diagon Alley. We sent Storm to get it." Ginny smiled.
"I wonder who sent this." Summer opened the other parcel as Crystal dipped her beak into Summer's pumpkin juice. Inside, she was astonished to find a brilliant snow globe. Even though it was small, the sparkles shone brightly and inside was a miniature unicorn, bowing at Summer!
"Woah...this must cost at least twenty Galleons!" Ashley gasped. Ginny looked through the wrapping paper of the parcel but found no note.
"I don't think it would be my mum. She bought me Crystal for my birthday." Summer said, shaking the snow globe gently. The unicorn straightened up, whinnied, and trotted through one of the ten or twenty small trees in the globe.
"Hmm...Who would send this?" Ashley wondered out loud as the owls flew back. She unwrapped her own big parcel, which was a dark pink bag.
"I don't know. I'm pretty sure no one knows my birthday except you guys and my mum." Summer shrugged. She placed the beautiful snow globe carefully in one of the pockets of her bag.
"Maybe someone from Hogwarts?" Ginny guessed. "Someone might like you."
"Honestly? I've been here for two weeks!" Summer drank a spoonful of her vegetable soup. "Well...A Slytherin second-year did wink at me."
"What did he look like?" Ashley asked.
"He was silver-blonde with...gray eyes? I don't know. He was pale though." Summer said, shrugging. Ginny was suddenly quiet.
"That seems like Draco Malfoy to me. He's Harry Potter's enemy. He's awfully rich. Draco could probably get a hundred Galleons per month for his allowance." Ginny said, scooping a spoonful of strawberry ice cream.
"But he didn't seem very proud or anything." Summer said, picking up a cup of blueberry pudding.
"Guess so. Oh and Professor McGonagall told us that we were to watch the second-years' dueling club after tea today." Ashley suddenly remembered.
"Cool...I wonder if we'll be able to learn some new spells. I need to fill up my spell book." Summer rummaged around her bag.
"Your...spell book?" Ashley said slowly.
"Yeah. I keep track of all the spells we learn. They'll come in handy someday." Summer took out her quill and a dark blue notebook.
"So far, I have wingardium leviosa, metra sivliverus and cronto mikisa." Summer read off her notebook. Cronto mikisa was the spell for changing emotions.
"Well, that's good to know. Come on, let's get to the dueling club." Ginny stood up. The three girls walked to the dueling club, where mostly everyone in Gryffindor and Slytherin were. Professor Snape, the potions master and Professor Lockhart, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher were also there.
"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Professor Lockhart, flashing a wide smile.
"He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry — you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!" said Professor Lockhart. He and Professor Snape fot in position for a wizard's duel.
"On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course. One — two — three—"
"Expelliarmus!" Professor Snape cried. Professor Lockhart was practically blasted off his feet, his wand flying out of his hand. Summer began to jot down notes into her book.
"Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm — as you see, I've lost my wand — ah, thank you, Miss Brown — yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy — however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"
Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me — Oh and, first-years, no need for getting into pairs. Just watch and learn." Professor Lockhart said.
"There! That's Draco Malfoy!" Ginny pointed. Summer craned her neck and looked. Yup, the Slytherin that winked at her, was Draco Malfoy. Only now had Summer noticed that he was handsome, in a way.
"Ginny, I think Summer's in love." Ashley whispered. Summer snapped back to reality.
"Ashley, no. I'm only eleven, okay?" Summer rolled her eyes but she was going pink. She went back to note-taking.
"Serpensortia!" Draco pointed his wand at Harry. THe tip of his wand exploded and a snake slithered out.
"Don't move, Potter," said Professor Snape. "I'll get rid of it…"
"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward a Gryffindor second-year and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.
"Leave him alone!" Summer shrieked. But instead of hearing English words, her voice was hissing! Harry was also hissing and they appeared to be saying the same thing to the black snake! Professor Snape waved his wand and the snake disappeared. He stared at Harry, then at Summer.
"Summer! What...Who...When...What was that?" Ashley asked.
"I don't know!" Summer was utterly confused. Could she actually talk to snakes?
"You were speaking Parseltongue! You're a Parselmouth!" Ashley gasped. "You can talk to snakes!" The dueling club ended almost immediately. The three girls went straight back to the Gryffindor common room.
"Scaly mint." Ginny said the password.
"I...How can I talk to snakes?" Summer felt like something was wrong with her.
"It's not a common gift, Summer." Ginny said. Bursting into the portrait was Harry, a red-haired boy (Ginny's brother) and a pretty brown-haired girl. "The symbol of Slytherin is the serpent. Salazar Slytherin could talk to snakes. He was well-known for that."
"I..I'm going to um...take a walk to cool off." Summer pushed past her friends and walked out of the Gryffindor common room.
She was walking down the first floor hall when she saw bathroom water on the floor. She glanced up and shrieked.
END OF CHAPTER 6!
Please R & R! Thanks for reading!
~R.J. Malfoy