AN: I know that in the book/movie, that the flying lesson was divided by class I decided to do it this way because it worked out better.
Joker :"You're really killing your readers, you know, nearly two months this time!"
Blame the fact I'm in another country and I don't have the books to get inspired by.
Harley: "That's still no excuse."
Harry: "Hi mom, hi dad!"
Oh boy...let's just get on with the story...
Harry: "There's one more thing, before we forget."
Everyone: "Happy Birthday to reader: blue girl 1994!"
"Sign-ups for Flying lessons," Harry noted the notice posted on the board in the Common Room. He turned to Hermione and Luna, asking, "Either of you signing up?"
"I'd rather keep my feet on the ground," Hermione answered.
"I don't want to get attacked by Nargles," Luna responded.
"…okay…" Harry spoke before writing his name on the list.
--__--__--
"I have no idea how you talked me into this," Neville complained. Harry had somehow convinced him to sign up for the flying lessons.
"You'll be fine, Neville," Harry remarked, seeing how nervous his friend was.
"Easy for you to say, my gran never let me fly because I'm so clumsy on the ground," Neville sighed.
"Think of this as a confidence booster!" Harry offered.
"I don't think that'll do me much good," Neville sighed.
"Hey Longbottom, are you trying to go for a record on how badly someone gets hurt?" Ron yelled, laughing with a few of his fellow Gryffindors.
"Just ignore them, Nev," Harry muttered, directing his friend to the brooms, "If you acknowledge him, you'll be doing exactly what he wants."
"It's a bit hard to ignore someone that loud," Neville responded, still hearing Ron's taunts, "Why'd the classes have to be combined?"
"I guess there weren't enough people signed up from each house to do otherwise," Harry suggested.
"With my luck, I'll look like an idiot in front of all of the first years," Neville muttered.
Harry clapped his friend on the back, causing him to stumble slightly, "Don't think about that sort of stuff Nev! If you keep worrying how you'll look to everyone else, how're you going to be happy with yourself?"
Neville did not know how to respond to that and watched as Harry sped up a bit to reach the brooms. He noted that Harry's head was held up high and there was a lightness to his step, in comparison; his head was almost looking towards the ground and he would nearly trip over his own feet on occasion.
"Hey Nev, what're you waiting for?" Harry called out, seeing that his friend was no longer next to him.
"Sorry about that, I was thinking," Neville apologized standing next to Harry.
"If you staring off into space is you thinking, you must have a lot on your mind with how often you do it," Harry laugh, causing a few others to follow.
"You'd be surprised with what's crossed my mind," Neville admitted.
"What goes on in a person's head should stay there, you'd be amazing what a person can come up with in there...especially if it's plans to scare someone," Harry smirked at his own inside joke.
"If you say so," Neville muttered as Madam Hooch called for the rest of the students to gather for the start of class.
Harry found it amusing at how Ron and Malfoy kept on fighting despite the fact their lack of concentration was making it a bit hard for them to get their brooms in their hands.
He also found it interesting that his broom came to him on his first try.
"You're a natural," a Random Student commented.
"What do you expect; his dad was a Quidditch player! Of course he'd be good on a broom!" Another Student responded.
"I really hate people comparing me to my blood dad," Harry spoke, "How can I be so much like someone I don't even know?"
Any further discussion of Harry's apparent skills stopped when Madam Hooch started instructing them on how to properly grip their brooms. Neville smiled slightly when he heard that Malfoy was doing it wrong and that no one had commented on him yet.
"Alright," Madam Hooch spoke, "On the count of three, I'll blow my whistle. You are to gently kick off the ground, float a few feet into the air, and then touchdown. One, two-"
Neville, still a bundle of nerves and fearing that he would lag behind, suddenly took off.
"Nice kick off," Harry joked before noticing that his friend seemed to be in trouble. He let his magic flow into his broom, feeling it become more alive and energetic in his hands; he looked upwards and say that Neville had slipped off his broom and proceeded to say one word: "Fly." The students that had been standing next to him were suddenly pushed away as Harry shoot straight up into the air. When he saw his friend coming towards him, Harry hooked his legs around his broom and reached out, barely grabbing Neville by his robes and, miraculously, he did not slip out of them. Unfortunately, the weight combined with how fast Neville had fallen had pulled on Harry's arm hard enough to pull it out of its socket. Harry gritted his teeth in pain before grabbing with his other arm to hold Neville steady as they floated back to the ground; when they reached Terra Firma, Harry let go of Neville and simply hung there upside-down.
"Harry, are you okay?" a Random Student asked.
"Other than the fact that my arm has been pulled out of its socket, I'm perfectly fine," Harry deadpanned, "Seriously Nev, lose some weight."
"Ouch, that sounds painful," Another Student remarked about the injury.
"Not as much as it's going to be sore for a while after I fix it," Harry retorted as he got off his broom, holding his arm at a certain angle to prevent it from moving, "Those squeamish may not want to watch."
"Watch what?" the Random Student asked.
The question was quickly answered when Harry took in a deep breath; let it out slowly, before proceeding to shift his arm slightly in a few directions before it popped back into its socket with a slightly sickening sound.
"That's going to be sore for a while," Harry offhandedly commented, moving his arm back and forth slowly, before taking in the looks of the people around him and noting, humorously, that both Ron and Malfoy seemed to be a bit green.
"That is just wrong," a voice commented.
Harry smiled widely, showing off a few too many teeth before remarking, "That's just one thing I'm capable of doing, wait until you see what happens when I get knocked upside the head!"
"Mr. Potter!" Madam Hooch interrupted, drawing the class' attention to her, "That was an extremely dangerous stunt, both you and Longbottom were lucky not to have been hurt worse!"
"There was no way I was going to let my friend fall," Harry retorted, standing his ground.
"I should take points off for that stunt and inform your head of house, but as it stands, due to your intervention Mr. Longbottom is unharmed," Madam Hooch responded, "I won't take points off but I will tell Professor Flitwick."
"That's reasonable," Harry agreed before speaking to the rest of the class, "Who wants to try that again?"
The proposition was met with blank stares.
"What?"
--__--__--
"That was fun, too bad that Hooch banned me from any further classes," Harry sighed.
"After those stunts you did at the end, I'm not surprised," Neville deadpanned.
"C'est la vie," Harry remarked, smiling, "But it does suck that she's making me personally tell Flitwick what I did…"
"Which part are we talking about here: when you saved me or what you did after?" Neville smirked.
"Smart aleck," Harry remarked, lightly hitting Neville as he walked into his Head of House's office, "Hello there Professor!"
"Mr. Potter, what'd you do this time?" Flitwick greeted.
"What makes you think I'm in trouble, can't a student visit his Head of House every once in a while?" Harry responded, both he and Flitwick were quiet for a moment before they started laughing, "That joke never gets old, does it?"
"Only when it involves something very dangerous," Flitwick answered, composing himself and motioning for the two boys to sit down, "So what happened?"
"You wanna hear about when I saved Nev or what I did afterwards to get permanently banned from any further flying lessons?" Harry spoke, completely straight-faced.
Flitwick stared at Harry for a moment before speaking, "Tell me the first one and I'll decide later if I really want to hear the second."
Harry let out a weird sounding chuckle before explaining what happened, surprisingly not embellishing a bit of the story.
"Quite the feat, Mr. Potter," Flitwick admitted, "I should recommend you to the Quidditch team-"
"I thought first years weren't allowed to join," Neville pointed out.
"Putting me on the team doesn't sound fair, since I bet other people have been waiting for their chance," Harry remarked, "If the team wants me, I'll try out just like everyone else."
Flitwick smiled slightly, "It's refreshing to see someone with your outlook on fairness."
Harry shrugged as he got up, "I just didn't think it'd be right if I was suddenly put on the team without at least trying out first."
"I'll inform you when tryouts will occur if you're still interested," Flitwick promised as the two left.
After walking down the corridor a bit, Neville abruptly stopped, causing Harry to do the same, "…teach me to be like you."
"What do you mean?" Harry responded.
"Teach me how to be confident, be brave, to be like you!" Neville clarified.
Harry looked his friend square in the eyes and spoke, "You don't want to be me, Neville, trust me on that."
"Why wouldn't anyone want to be you?" Neville retorted, "You're brave, smart, funny, and happy all the time; you even got recommended to be on the Quidditch team!"
"And I've got a homicidal manic after me!" Harry yelled, "You want to be the Boy-Who-Wouldn't-Freaking-Die?! You want to have both your parents killed and to end up in the home of the only living relatives you got, living in a cupboard underneath the freaking stairs and being worked like a house elf?!"
Neville was stunned, "I didn't—"
"Of course you didn't know! I hate the fact that everyone thinks they know me because of something I don't remember and didn't really do! Do you know what it's like to have people not care for who you really are at all?" Harry spat, "You want to be the Boy-Who-Lived, go carve a scar into your head."
"Why do you act so happy then?" Neville inquired.
"Because I'm in a place where people care that I exist," Harry admitted, "Sure they're not 'normal' by any stretch of the word …most of them are certifiably insane, truth be told, but they're great!"
Neville was struck speechless before muttering under his breath, "I just wanted to learn how to fight…"
Harry glared at his friend for a moment before an evil smirk crossed his face, "You want to learn how to fight, fine."
Neville looked up in time to see a punch come right towards him, he staggered backwards as the blow made contact with his face, "W-what was that for?!"
"The best way to learn is through real fighting," Harry emotionlessly responded, "If you can't take one punch, you're pathetic and not worth my time."
"How was I supposed to know you'd actually hit me!" Neville retorted.
"In real life, you don't know when someone will attack you…if I had the inclination, I could've hit you at least a couple more times in the moment it took for you to step back from the first punch," Harry spoke, "I don't want to shatter your view of what the world really is, but know that things won't stay sugarcoated forever."
Neville stared at Harry's back as he stormed off, slowly running the conversation over and over in his head. He eventually walked off, not really paying attention to where he was going. In a few ways, he felt sorry for Harry: he did not choose the life he had, he did not choose for his parents to be killed; he did not choose to originally live with people that hated him. 'I guess I should be lucky that I still have my parents…physically at least. Being around crazy people would explain his behavior…'
"Watch where you're going Longbottom!" a voice exclaimed.
Neville noticed that his feet had led him into a run-in with Ron Weasley, 'Just what I don't need…'
"How did someone as famous as Harry Potter even get to know someone as pathetic as you?" Ron taunted.
Neville clenched his fist in anger before remembering that Harry had said not to take Ron's bait and sink to his level. Relaxing slightly and giving a noncommittal shrug, he responded, "I'm just lucky, I guess."
"You got that right, still, Harry should've been friends with me and been in Gryffindor," Ron flippantly spoke.
"Harry's happy in the house he's in, it suits him," Neville argued.
"Still can't believe he's in a house full of bookworms!" Ron responded, ignoring Neville's argument.
"Don't insult Harry's house or his friends!" Neville snapped.
"What about you then?" Ron shot back, "You're in Hufflepuff, where the people that can't get into the other houses go; you're a bunch of rejects!"
Neville had no idea what came over him but he suddenly found himself with his body positioned in the follow through of a punch and Ron on the ground covering his eye.
"You'll pay for that, Longbottom!" Ron threatened.
"I don't think so," Neville responded, with an air of courage in his voice, "I'm not afraid of someone like you, who's so caught up in what people say about a person that you don't care for who they really are. You're a bigger loser than I am. Also, I can see that you're jealous that I'm friends with Harry and you're not, which shows that you only wanted to be friends so you could be recognized by people; you're a really pathetic person."
With that, Neville walked off, barely restraining a goofy smile crossing across his face. As he walked into the Great Hall, he saw Malfoy gloating with his housemate and messing with his Remembrall. Taking a moment to collect himself, Neville walked over to the Slytherin table and up to Malfoy.
"What do you want?" Malfoy spoke, staring dismissively at the other boy.
"Give me back my Remembrall," Neville answered.
"And why should I?" Malfoy retorted.
"Because it's mine," Neville responded before repeating, "Give me my Remembrall."
"Why am I even wasting my time talking to you? You're almost a Squib and you're a disgrace to Purebloods," Malfoy derisively spoke.
Neville was quiet for a minute before speaking only loud enough for Malfoy to hear, "At least my father wasn't a Death Eater."
Malfoy's face grew red from indignation and, without thinking, he lunged at Neville who took the chance to punch Malfoy in the face, take his Remembrall back and flee before Crabbe and Goyle could realize what happened.
"Why'd you do that?" a fellow Hufflepuff asked when Neville took shelter at their table.
"I'm tired of people walking over me, so I stood up for myself," Neville responded.
"And you did so beautifully!" Harry exclaimed, popping up and nearly giving everyone a heart attack.
"Y-you really think so?" Neville stammered.
"Absitively posolutely!" Harry answered, the odd phrase was met with a lot of blank looks but a few smiled at the reference, "Especially if you were the one that gave Ron the black eye."
"Yeah, that was me," Neville admitted, a bit embarrassed.
"You knocked down those idiots and gave them a black eyes, not bad," Harry smiled, "We'll start in a few days."
"Start what?" Neville asked, confused.
"You wanted to learn how to fight, right?" Harry responded.
"I thought you said I wasn't 'worth your time'?" Neville quoted.
Harry grinned, "I wanted to see what you were able to do without being taught. I wanted to see you stand on your own two feet before helping."
"…you're weird," Neville deadpanned.
"You're just now realizing that?" Harry laughed, "By the way, get up early tomorrow and dress in something light and meet me by the lake, bring a bag or something."
"What's the bag for?" Neville asked.
"I don't think it's very comfortable to put rocks in your pockets," Harry remarked.
"Wha?"
"You'll see, and don't forget to wear running shoes," Harry informed before skipping away.
The next day saw Neville stagger into the Hufflepuff common room and collapse into the closest open chair. When someone asked if he was alright, Neville answered by repeating: "The pixies want to eat my brains" several times.
Harley: "What'd Harry do to him?"
"Don't ask…you seriously don't wanna know…"
Harry "It's not that bad, he should be grateful I didn't stick meat down his pants and tell Jin 'fetch'!"
…that actually gives me an idea for the next chapter…by the way guys, there's a new poll on my profile on whether or not Harry should be on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and if so, what position he should be on.
