Childish things

AN: This chapter was not really checked to satisfaction yet, but I've kept delaying this for no reason for way too long so I will just upload it for now. It will probably see some changes later, also I finally have a picture for this story, made by a good friend of mine, you can find her here:
Wattpad user/Ichbinnichtkreativ .( Noticed that ffnet deleted the link again :/ )

After that sunday the monday lessons were a huge let down. Herbology was the same as always, and they were told that most of the spells they were expected to learn for Herbology, would be taught in Charms and a few of them in DADA. While they used their wands in Transfiguration the only thing they did was try to change a matchstick into a needle. The only one who had any success was Hermione and all she did was make her matchstick a little silvery and pointy. Charms was even worse, because they still had to do the preparation for the levitation spell, because as professor Flitwick explained it was a very draining spell for first years and you needed to have a good understanding of how it worked, or you would get so exhausted that you might lose consciousness for a few minutes because of the over taxation on the magical core. What saved the day in the eyes of most first years from Gryffindor was a note on the Gryffindor black board that said that flying lessons were scheduled for Thursday the 12th of September, that was until they continued to read and noticed that they would have them with the Slytherins.

When the mail came the next day at breakfast Harry was talking with Seamus as a packed for Neville arrived that had a small glass ball inside which was filled with what looked like white smoke. Neville had just explained that it was called a Remembrall and was supposed to remind the holder when he had forgotten something important when Malfoy took the by now red ball right out of his hand.

"Look what we have here, the boy-who-lived has forgotten something important. Probably how he managed to defeat the Dark Lord when he was a baby." Malfoy gloated.
"Would you just give Neville his ball thingy back" said Harry with an exasperated sigh.
"What do you even want, Potter. You don´t even get mail, since no one wants anything to do with you."

Hermione noticed with some surprise that Harry seemed to wince a little at that statement, but it was hard to tell with him, because he usually looked like he didn´t care about the world around him unless he displayed emotions on a little exaggerated level. She was starting to suspect that he played his emotional responses most of the time.

Before the situation was able to escalate any further, professor McGonagall arrived, and Malfoy acted like he just wanted to look at Neville´s Remembrall and went back to the Slytherin table.

He tried to get his hands on the Remembrall again, when lunch came around and had another go at it the next breakfast as well, but Neville started watching for it more closely when he knew Malfoy was around.
Wednesday evening was nice, because the Astronomy was cancelled so they could be up for the flying lessons the next day, which was something that seemed to offend professor Sinistra, especially since most students were supposed to take at least three Flying lessons over the next 2 months with those who show to be competent only needing two and those less gifted needing four or even five, which would cut into their Astronomy lessons.

While most people were excited for the Flying lessons Neville and Hermione were more horrified than anything else. Harry showed some slight unease as well, but Hermione was not sure whether it was genuine or if he was just reflecting what he picked up from her and Neville so to better fit in. After thinking about it she decided she was overthinking his behaviour again, he was trying to teach her how to read social cues, but had told her that overanalysing everything was more of a hindrance, because she took to long thinking about social cues instead of reacting to them and was most likely over interpreting most of them if she´d think about them to long anyway.

When Thursday came around Hermione was close to being an emotional wreck. She had practiced the levitation charm the entire Wednesday in hope she would be able to catch people, falling from their brooms with it, but had just realized at breakfast this morning that it would not help her if she was the one falling. She had also read every book she had found on flying tips at least three times, but she had only found two and one of them had not been helpful at all, because it mostly listed the error one could make, but said nothing about how to avoid those.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, grey hair and yellow eyes like a hawk. While Hermione had perfect trust in their teacher´s abilities she was a little worried when she told them that they would all fly up simultaneously, because she had no idea how Madam Hooch would be able to stop accidents should more then one student fall at the same time, but she had also said that they would only fly up a few feet, so it was not like anyone was in any real danger anyway.

"When I tell you to, you will all hold out your hands like this and say UP. The broom will fly up to your Hand and you will grab it. I except you to wait until everyone has their brooms in hand and you received further instructions, before anyone does anything.

Everyone cried "Up" but most brooms only did a little bit of turning on the ground instead of jumping into the hands of their masters. Harry´s result was as average as you could get, but instead of showing any resignation or any other emotion he just stared off into space.

We don´t need to do this crap anymore.
B-but.
We don´t need. To. Do. This. Anymore.
But I don´t want to show off. Everyone will hate me. And I don´t want to ride this stupid broom anyway.
Don´t you trust me? Only the weak would hate you for such petty resons. And we don´t need those to like us. I have helped you to project some confidence and look where it has lead. We have more allies than we have ever had before. And you even have one of those friends that you always wanted.

He snapped back into reality and noticed with some unease that almost everyone was staring at him.
"Are you ok, boy?" asked Madame Hooch in an almost gentle voice.
"Ha, he's so ashamed he can't even speak." Shouted Malfoy somewhere from the back.
Those who had still been watching Harry, when the laughter started, could have sworn that there had been something wrong with his left eye, but it was gone so fast that no one knew what it had been.
"Up." Harry commanded in a cold voice and the broom shot up into his hand.
The laughter died as quickly as it had started.

Once everyone had their brooms in hand Madame Hooch instructed them to form a line. As told before they would push off the ground, hover for a moment and then come back down again, but before her lips even touched the whistle Neville pushed of the ground as hard as he could and shot of like a rocket. Straight up he went. He was already about forty feet high in the air before he lost grip after looking down. He had almost hit the ground when Madame Hooch hit him with a spell that slowed him down. It still sounded like it hurt a lot and Madame Hooch brought him to the Hospital wing by levitating him there. Before she went she told them to stay put or they would be expelled.

"Look what we have here. The famous boy-who-fell-from-his-broom lost his stupid ball thingy." Malfoy said triumphantly.
While Harry was still touching his face with the palm of his hand, Ron rose to the taunt and confronted Malfoy.

Ron was enraged, how dare he steal something from the-boy-who-was-Ron´s-friend.
He had almost managed to grab Malfoy, but in the last second the coward took to the sky. He grabbed a broom himself when the god forsaken know-it-all told him to leave Malfoy alone. "What are you on about you, you…"
"He isn´t worth it." She answered.
That was it. He pushed her hard to the ground before going after Malfoy. In his rage he almost collided with the other boy mid-air. He grudgingly had to acknowledge that the boy had not been lying when he told everyone about how flying was second nature to him, but that would not stop him from taking Neville´s whatever it was called back.
"I will push you off your broom, Malfoy." He shouted in hope that the other boy would be intimidated enough to land, but instead it was so much that the other boy felt cornered.
"How about you try to catch this thing if it is so important." Malfoy answered before tossing the ball as far as he could.
Without thinking Ron rushed after it, he was almost in free fall, but the ball was still just out of his reach, and the ground was getting closer and closer.
Then the miracle happened. As if influenced by some outside force the ball seemed to slow down, no that was impossible, he was speeding up, yes that was it. His great ability on a broom was making him just that slight bit faster and he was able to grab the ball. But he hadn´t noticed how close he already was to the ground. He pulled up and was just barely able to avoid hitting the ground, which at this speed could have easily broken his bones.

He was holding the ball up in one hand like a trophy while on his way back and most of the Gryffindors were applauding him, even a few of the Slytherins looked impressed with his feat. He noticed that Harry was scowling at him, which made a shiver run down his spine for some reason. He had never seen the boy so angry before and was honestly confused what he was on about. Then he noticed Granger still lying on the ground where he had pushed her. She looked unconscious and his blood that had just been boiling with righteous rage got very cold very fast. Had he pushed her so hard that she was hurt. As he approached Harry grabbed her and started carrying her towards the hospital wing without even giving him another glance.

When Madame Hooch came back she announced that this lesson was cancelled, and they would repeat it next week.
A few seconds after the bell rang his brothers appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him and told him he needed to meet someone.

A few hours later Draco Malfoy had the nerve to challenge him to a wizarding duel. He agreed and chose Seamus as his second, because Neville was still not released from the hospital wing.

When Harry met Hermione the next day at breakfast she told him a story that made his eyes bulge and had him hit his face with the palm of his hand at least half a dozen times.

AN

Just read over this again, hate how many errors I found.

I have the first 10 chapters already finished, but if I only publish them once i am satisfied with them it will take for ever until they are out. If you want me to just upload them anyway, please tell me in a review or pm. I will also write a pm to everyone who was so nice to follow or fav this story asking what they would prefer. In the end I will go with the answer I get most often. In case no one cares I will just upload all of them.