Charms (again)

Ahh, the joys of having dear little Professor Flitwick for charms twice in a day. He is very relaxing.

We're doing the same as this morning, learning how to hold the wand then the movement and enchantment.

It's quite fun, actually. We have the Ravenclaw's with us, and they're cool. Dominic paired off with one of the boys and has managed to singe his hair. It's a very attractive look, I'm sure he will have plenty of owls chasing him around, thinking that he's a new nest or something.

"Oi, are you paying any attention what so ever?" A moody voice asks me.

I look at Lily and she gives me a mini 'work-now-or-I'll-hit-you' glare. Her good 'I must feed you' mood has gone.

I smile at her. "Yep. You're just better at this than me, so I'm letting you get on with it without holding you back,"

I smirk and scrunch my face up. I get a roll of the eyes in response to my (very true) comment.

"It's saying a word. Or waving a wand. You've managed to do say it, now practice or you'll end up like him," she nods over at Peter and James who went over to see if Dom was alright a few minutes ago.

Bad idea, because now the three of them don't seem to have any eyebrows.

I snort and look down at my wand. It's just lying quite happily on my desk. I'm sure it can't be bothered to do anything. I know I can't.

Bloody hell, it's hot in this classroom. We're in the big huge tower overlooking Carl's lake, but the windows are closed. Huzzah, huzzah, I can boil my bottom off. I'll need that for flying later.

"Katie! Help me!"

"Really Lily? Can you not do this alone? I'm rather tired, you see, and-"

"It's the second day. How are you tired?"

I get a death glare, again, and recoil slightly. Lily has gone red and her eyes are flashing madly. Good Merlin, I suppose I had better help her.

I prod at the feather on our table with my wand. Stupid thing. Flitwick gave them to us to 'See if we can find out its mass, and therefore how much power needs to go behind the spell'

It's a feather! They don't have masses! I look at Lily with my eyebrows both raised. She nods triumphantly.

"Thank you."

"You're most welcome, Lily dearest."

I really need to stop giving in to her.

...

Oh dear, my prodding of the feather has not gone to plan. It is on fire.

Whoops.

"Errm, Lily?" I ask. She's helping Mary and Marlene.

"What?" she snaps. Oh dear.

"Don't look now, but I might need some help..."

Buggeration, she won't even look!

"Errm, actually, do look! Help me! Now!" I yelp, and prod the feather. Some sparks jump off of it. Oh sh- it's moving! Moving I tell you!

I scuffle my chair back against the table behind us. God knows where Flitwick is.

Oh wait, he's regrowing eyebrows. I suppose it would be so very cruel cruel to stop him helping those in need, especially considering I'm the one about to be killed by this bloody rampaging fire!

"Katie! What have you done!" I hear someone squeal. Oh, finally! Help!

"Took your time Lily! Help me!"

She runs to the back and grabs Flitwick's shoulder. He turns around in shock and the fire decides to turn on me.

I start to flap at it desperately with a bag: no, it's not Lily's. I'm not sure whose it is...

Oh well, I'm in need!

Flitwick turns around to try and give her the fifth degree or some other 'Professor abuse' punishment, but she quite literally picks him up and carries him over to our table at a run, squeaking and squawking.

Okay then. She's gone mad.

I leap up and away as he (finally) realises what's happening, pulls out his wand and attacks the fire with water.

The table smokes and splutters, but it's okay, it won't die. When the fire is out, Flitwick turns to us.

Bugger.

"Who did this?" he asks in a very hilarious, furious way. Bless him. He isn't very good at being mad.

Lily points at me. I gasp in shock and pout at her.

Ohhh, the betrayal!

Flitwick turns to me and frowns.

"Err, sorry. The feather was being stubborn and wouldn't fly, so I poked it." I explain.

Flitwick puts a hand on his forehead.

"You don't poke feathers, Armstrong-" Ohh, use the last name. Ouch. "you don't poke anything with your wand unless you know exactly what will happen! It is very dangerous!"

Moan moan moan. Okay, I won't do it again. I think we all know that.

Well, I might if someone annoys me, just to get them back. If I scared myself, who knows what I could do now! Just casually walk up to someone, put a feather on their head and poke it before- WHOOSH! They die in an explosion of flamey feathers. Well, not die exactly, but their hair would probably be burnt to a crisp.

"I won't give you a detention," YES! Suck on that, no detention. Cue the happy dance, "because you didn't know, but if it happens again, the four of you will get one, no escapes. Are you alright?"

No, I almost had a heart attack and killed by a savage fire. Take a guess, small sir.

"Yes sir."

He restores the table with a flick of his wand, and trots over to the front of the room and hops onto his book pile.

Lily glares at me. I ignore her.

It isn't my fault. She turned me in, after all.

Flitwick tells us all exactly what he told me, and with all the kindness of his little heart, lets us out a few minutes early.

Hurray! Flying next!

Almost at the Pitch.
Later

"What happened to you two?" Emma asks as we reach down to the pitch.

She got out later, because her table was at the back. It was quite entertaining, running away from her and watching her vainly try to catch up.

"I poked the feather, it went on fire and tried to kill me, Lily wouldn't help, and Flitwick got annoyed." I tell her.

"I did help! I got Flitwick to help,"

"Oh yeah," I point at Lily and turn to grin at Emma.

"This dipstick carried Flitwick across the room to our table without telling him why. Just casually ran up behind him, and grabbed him,"

Emma snorts and gives Lily a funny look. Lily looks insulted.

"I tried to tell him, but he was moaning at Potter. Stupid prig." She spits the last insult, violent child.

"Me or James?"

"James."

"Good, or else I would have been insulted,"

"Which is why I didn't say it about you! And it's true, the prat is attention seeking big time!"

Emma pats Lily's arm comfortingly. "Don't worry. I'm sure we can get him back."

"I could feed him to Carl?" I put in. Lily raises an eyebrow at me.

"The giant squid in the Black Lake. I just so happened to wonder about whether the lake is a portal to other worlds, and Pettigrew heard and now he wants to find out," I remind her.

Lily nods in approval. "Good plan,"

Why thank you, I know; I'm brilliant. Everyone bow down to my fascinating ideas.

We pass through the Entrance hall, and the Slytherins are coming up from the dungeons. Most suspicious.

Lily waves at her friend, the greasy black haired one, and he comes over to us. Oh, for Merlins' sake, why?
Doesn't he understand that I detest him, even though I don't even know him? His presence irritates me to death and I want to -

"Katie, what on earth are you doing?"

Good Merlin, in my little state, I have managed to stop walking and have started to grind my teeth. I stop myself immediately and grin sheepishly at Emma.

She rolls her eyes and tells me to hurry up.

I tell her no.

She moans that we will be late for flying.

I run after her.

Lily and Grease-Pot didn't even realise my little reaction, which I suppose is a good thing, and I honestly cannot be bothered to catch them up. The effort involved is far too strenuous.

I don't think Emma Dear can be bothered either, as she shoots eye-daggers at His back and remains silent. I think she feels betrayed. I know I do.

Flying
Out in the freezing, freezing cold.

Despite my 'Little Reaction' (Emma woke up from her brain dead state and gave it a nickname, laughing, when we finally reached Lily) we were still one of the first to Flying, with Frank&Friends being the only ones before us.

I nod at them, and he nods back with a wink and a grin.

Errm, okay. He is also mad. I am stuck with a bunch of lunatics for the rest of my life.

The goon comes over with Dom and Lance in tow, and he looks questioningly at Snape, stood a few feet away with Lily. I roll my eyes to say 'I know, it sucks'. He nods his head glumly a few times. 'I agree. You poor child' I can feel him saying. Well, not feel exactly, but feel, in my head sort of thing. Like a mind reader.

He breaks off our silent conversation and says, "Are you planning to tell anyone about Carl?"

I gasp in mock shock. "Of course not! It's a beautiful plan, to fool foolish beings into a deep, freezing lake in the middle of winter because they're stupid enough to believe there's a portal in there,"

He puts a hand over his mouth to try and stop himself laughing, and doesn't succeed. I'm just a hilarious person.

I think we've had this conversation before.

Anyway, Dom looks a little confused, so I start to explain to him all about Carl the Great Lake Squid.

I just about finish off when I get prodded in the back, rather sharply. I turn and glare at the prodder, expecting it to be Lily.

Oh, nope, it's Sirius (and Remus).

I have attracted an audience. Hurrah, the joys of being surrounded by people.

Well, five. Six if you include Emma.

"What's this about a squid, Armstrong?" he asks.

For crying out loud, how many times do I have to explain?

I roll my eyes and growl. He looks a bit astonished.

"Did you just growl at me?"

"Shush, I'm releasing built up anger," I tell him. He looks even more confused. I look at Frank meaningfully, and he seems to understand because he explains My Plot to the two boys.

Thank god someone has a brain around here.

Honestly, the lack of brains is going to drive me insane. Maybe Frank has a brain, but no one else does and I'm SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS.

I turn away to Lily and Snape, flexing my hands slightly. Relax. Think of clouds.

I think everyone is here now, and a man is laying out brooms in the middle of the pitch. He calls us all over, and I end up dragging Lily away from Snape.

He glares at me and goes to stand with his Minions. Good riddance.

"Hello! I am Professor Whyte; you might remember me from when I played for the Pride of Portree, a few years back. Has anyone ridden a broom before?" He says, in an incredibly thick Scottish accent. I barely understand him, but oh well. As long as I can fly, I really don't care.

Most of us raise our hands to say 'yes, we have been on a broom before, duh'.

Whyte nods in approval, and makes us all stand next to a broom. Lily is next to me, and Snape is next to her. James and Lance are opposite me, because Peter's gone to ask if he can miss out on flying.

What a wimp.

Who would want to miss flying!

The professor's sent him back, and he has to stand on his owney with the dearest Slytherins. Hahahaha.

"Oi, Armstrong!" someone calls. I turn around and scan the line, looking for whoever it was. Sirius waves and waggles his eyebrows at me.

What a freak. Remus apparently agrees, because he rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

I cock my head and he calls again. "You want a competition? Were probably the best flyers here-," Oh I do feel muchly complemented. And honoured, to receive words of praise from 'almighty' Sirius Black. "- and I'm bored,"

If looks could kill, Sirius would be gone, poof, from the look James's giving him.

Ah, what harm will it do?

"You're on! First round the pitch wins?" I call back. He gives me the thumbs up, and I narrow my eyes mockingly.

"Are you sure that's wise?" asks Lily.

"Lily. It's flying. I'm not going to die, and these brooms don't go quarter of the speed I'm used to. Trust me,"

She nods, and turns her attention back to the broom.

"Now, raise your hand over a broom and say 'Up!'" Whyte calls. We all do, and mine decides it likes me and jumps into my hand. Hurrah!

Lily's has rolled over a little, and she looks rather strained. Emma's is- Oh my Merlin, Snapey-poo's has smacked him in the nose!

Bahahahaa! Serves the spoon right, trying to get in with us Gryffs.

I think everyone in Gryffindor saw it, because we're all laughing like some retarded pack of hyenas. Ahh, I love us.

Sirius has his broom, so does Potter, Remus' is hovering slightly and Peter is crying and Lance has his and Frank has his and Dom... doesn't have his, it appears to have flown away, and the Slytherins are stood like lemons watching us.

Whyte comes around to tell them all how to pick it up, and adjusts our grips so we don't 'slip off the end'.

Am I the only one that finds it funny?

Anyway, he grabs his own broom and shows us how to mount, before giving instructions on how to kick off.

Lily now looks completely petrified. Snape has a lovely bruise blooming on his forehead, across that greasy mop of hair... ew.

I catch Sirius' eye and wink – he winks back and James looks even more furious. Oh dear. Incoming famous Potter temper. Dad's warned me about this.

Apparently they get all mad and feisty and yell and smash stuff, I personally think it would be worth annoying him to see if it's true.

"On the count of three, I want the Slytherins only to push off GENTLY, rise a few feet, and then come back down. One, two, THREE!"

Oh. I was getting excited then. Sirius rolls his eyes at me, and I mouth back, 'I know'.

I watch the Slytherins move up (none of them get very far, probably because of the weight) and come back down. They're all cheering and whooping. Honestly.

Lily's calling enthusiastically to Snape, who's broom hasn't managed to leave the ground yet. Whyte tells him to push harder, and his broom starts to buck.

This time I know everyone has seen – we're laughing and laughing, even Lily, stood there chuckling like a beaver as Snape is thrown off, dangling by his arms.

"Don't let go! Try and get back on or it'll fly away!" Whyte calls, running over to us and trying to grab Snape's foot.

Holy Jesus, the broom is moving away! Just moving, floating casually, still bucking, away from the professor!

Snape is still trying to mount on, the idiot. He is failing spectacularly.

He looks round at Lily, who is still laughing madly, and I think he feels a bit betrayed because he falls to the ground, and the broomstick does exactly what the professor said, and is flying away.

Sirius waves again, and nods happily.

Oh yes!

Remus rolls his eyes before raising a hand slightly. I mount my broom. Sirius mounts his.

Ooh, the anticipation!

'Get set!' Remus mouths, and brings down his arm. "Go!"

We take off at the same time, and I start heading towards the pitch, flat against the handle with Sirius next to me, grinning and laughing. I pretend to kick him and he swerves, swearing happily at me.

"Oi!" someone cries from behind us. Oh my Merlin, if that's the professor... Oh, no, it's James.

He comes up besides us and Sirius swears again, rudely this time and James calls, "I'll show you decent flying!"

Sirius yells something back, and I try to stay out of the way: honestly, two boys in a race are not good, especially if they're arch enemies.

Not going to lie, though, this is the best flying I've done in years.

We're about halfway round the pitch now, I think; I can just see the group watching us from the lawns. So long, suckers, we can fly. Boom.

James tries to overtake; Sirius blocks him and – oh my god, they're kicking each other! What the hell?

"What are you doing?" I yell at them, and fly into the middle. Oops, bad plan, I'm being buffeted like a sock in a waterfall. Not that I know what that feels like (well, I do now).

Sirius grins at me and James mutters something under his breath. I glare at him. We're all still neck to neck, incredibly, and my broom can't go any faster. They must have set speed limits.

Well that sucks.

"Oi, what's that?" Sirius calls, and points to something up ahead.

"Snivvys' broom!" James calls back, grinning evilly. Oh no.

I can see the group properly now, all the Slytherins are huddled round Snape and the Gryffs are watching us. I can't see the professor.

I tighten my grip on the broom handle and dive towards them; James and Sirius are still battling it out up there.

As I touchdown, I'm surrounded by people, all cheering and hugging me. I beat back the hands and Lily marches towards me.

Good grief, what now.

"You could have been killed, Armstrong!" she cries, prodding me in the chest. Ahh. Muggleborns. Bless her little heart, she was worried about me!

"Lily, you haven't seen Quidditch. Trust me, that was brilliant!" I tell her.

She opens her mouth to say something, but someone gasps and points to the sky. We all look up.

James has one foot on his broom, and one foot on the bucking broom.

What is he doing! Is he some kind of imbecile, if anyone sees he will be expelled!

Sirius is coming down now, laughing madly at his enemy (I like calling them that, it's rather entertaining) and raises a hand at us.

"All hail Sirius Black, winner of the first annual broomstick rac- oh."

Haha, he's seen me! I won!

"Oh yes, get in there! Told you, Black!" I cry up to him.

He touches down and rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, but He distracted me. I would have won." He motions up to the retard still trying to ride the two brooms.

I snort. Yeah right.

"Sore loser. I'm just better than you," I tell him, putting on false airs and dancing around. Lily grabs my arm and pulls a face that says 'you are a freak'. It's not true. I'm just witty and hilariously cutting. Duh.

"'Kay" is the only reply I get.

Well then.

James still isn't down yet. I wonder why the professor hasn't stopped him yet.

"Hey Lily?"

"What?"

"Where's Professor Whyte?" I ask.

She points to the floor.

"Oh."

He's fainted.

Great Hall - Dinner.
Rather annoyed.

By the time we're back at the Great Hall, James has a detention, so does Sirius, and so do I.

Brilliant. Well, it could have been worse – Flitwick could have given me one too.

James eventually fell off the brooms, to Lily's pleasure. He went to the hospital wing with Peter, and has a turban thing on his head.

It's extremely attractive.

We (Lily, me, and Emma) eat straight away, and then go back up to tower. The house elves put out pasta today.

It is a great achievement. I am very proud of them.

I haven't seen Snape since his little fall of the broom, and Lily looks quite sad.

"Lily, cheer up. Snape's fine. The Matron will have him sorted in no time," I say. She sighs, and sinks into one of the armchairs next to the fire. I sit opposite her, and Emma collapses on the rug. She is a bit special.

"Yes, but I laughed at him. That probably hurt his feelings," she replies.

So we're back on the subject of feelings. Does Snape have feelings? I don't think so. He just doesn't seem the type.

"Oh well. Lily, he's fine," Emma says harshly. Ouch.

I glare at her, and stand up. "Do you guys want to play exploding snap?"

Emma smirks and nods. Lily looks a little bit confused, and then nods too.

The older people have all come in now and are milling around aimlessly. I point towards the room, and they get up to follow me. Our chairs have already been taken by some Fifth Years, the greedy pigs.

"Errm, Katie, what is exploding snap?" Lily asks nervously when we get upstairs, and are all sitting on MY bed (they had permission, though).

Ahh, I love muggleborns. So clueless and innocent and corruptible.

"Well, it's all the fun and games of snap, but with the added risk of having your face burned off if you handle them too roughly, or 'snap' them at the wrong time," I tell her. Lily now looks a bit scared, and has shied away from the pack I have in my hands.

"No, it's just they could explode at any moment, but it doesn't hurt. Apart from when they get your ears. That hurts," Emma says calmly.

I begin to dish the cards out, and Lily relaxes again.

"I take it you know how to play cards, Evans?" Emma asks teasingly. She gets a punch in the elbow and Lily rolls her eyes, too. Special treatment.

"Of course I do, Vance. Duh."

That's better, all snarky. I understand that.

We play merrily for a while (well, it may or may not be a few hours) and I continuously lose. What is wrong with these cards?

They're mine after all, I should be favoured! At least we haven't had any injuries yet – we have at least one severe burn case at home, every single time. Usually it's dad or Jake, clumsy buggers.

The doors slams open and Marlene storms in. Oh Merlin, I forgot about her!

She doesn't look very happy. She slams the door back and marches over to her bed.

"Where have you been? It's half ten!" Lily asks.

Marlene looks up and glares. "With the others, being sociable, as you lot should be doing! Why are you lot up here?"

Okay, because that made the world of sense. I exchange a confused look with Emma, who raises an eyebrow. "Playing snap. You wanna join in?" she asks, very politely.

Almost sarcastically, actually. Ooohh.

Marlene seems to have taken it as sarcasm, as she is now growling. "You could have said that an hour ago, instead of making your own little gang, without me!"

Aahhh. Jealous. Jeeeeeaaalous.

"Sorry, but you seemed to be having a whale of a time with slaggy, minion and Alice," I tell her. I don't get a reply.

She just picks up some pyjamas, heads into the bathroom and slams the door.

I turn back to my supposed 'gang'. "Well, that was exciting,"

Lily looks appalled. "I forgot about Marlene! What do we do?" she squeaks. Her face has gone red.

"Is it really half ten?" Emma asks casually. I check my watch, and nod. "We should probably get ready for bed then, let her sleep on it, let you rest after your little adventure because you have a detention tomorrow night with that new caretaker guy and I'm bloody tired,"

Lily agrees and I frown at Emma.

"It wasn't my fault, Sirius suggested it,"

Marlene's out now, and Lily's just gone into the toilet.

"Still, you could be there all night,"

I shrug and begin to get changed. Emma does the same, and we go into the bathroom for teethy cleany stuff. Toothbrush, that's the one.

When I get into bed, Lily blows out the candles, and an owl hoots.

It doesn't shut up.

Some early time in the morning.

I think I must have drifted off to sleep, because when I wake up again, all freezing, Leo is sat on me, still hooting madly.

"Your bloody owl is doing my head in!" Emma snarls from across the room.

I stroke Leo's head.

"It's not his fault, he's only a baby, and he wants a hug,"

I give the poor thing a hug, and Emma calls back, "He probably wants to go out to the owlery, not be stuck up in here. He's an owl,"

Apparently Leo agrees, because he nips my finger and flies to the window.

"Really Leo? Really?" I ask, for no reason at all, and roll out of bed.

Bugger, it's cold.

I open the window open long enough for him to get out, then turn up the heaty thing and bomb back into bed.

Aahh. It's quiet now. Leo can stay out.

Hey there guys,

Yep, I'm useless. The update once/twice a week thing is not going to happen, probably ever, unless this goes on hiatius whilst I finish it. And there no point whatsoever in doing that.

I will, however, edit the first chapters when I can be bothered. I'm uploading this in an airport on my way home from Gran Canaria, and have had not internet for 2-3 weeks - bar when I've been to Cafes with Wi-Fi. So I had a goos chance to edit the first chapter for you. Its not major - just the rather appaling tenses and stuff.

But voila, here it is!

Cheers for the reviews, I honestly love you guys. Really, I do. I have no internet to see who has reviewed, but I remember it being June when I last updated, and I did actually write the first half of this then. I just got lazy.

Oh, and, it was my birthday on the 18th. Oh yes.

If you've read this all, you're a legend, if you haven't, then you're not but you wouldn't know/be offended, because you didn't read it. Simple logic.

Adios, mi amigos. (I'm taking Spanish at GCSE, btw. ME FREAKIN' GUSTA, as Marvel would say.)

~Wolffe.