A year in the life of Harry Potter
Chapter 48: September, 12
Ginny walked towards Hermione and Harry who sat somewhere in the middle of the Gryffindor house table, but as Harry glared at her she swallowed and walked away again. Morning lessons were going to start in half an hour.
"What's the matter?" Hermione asked. "You two had an argument?"
Harry shook his head. "I told her it'd be best if we stop spending time with each other."
"How could you?" Hermione exclaimed, jumping up. She took her things and walked away over to where Ginny was sitting, next to Neville Longbottom who seemed to have received a parcel from his grandmother. A moment later Ron sat down where she had sat, piling fried eggs onto his plate.
"How're you?" he asked with a full mouth.
"I was better," Harry sighed, wondering if he should befriend Weasley or not. After all the friendship did not have to last an eternity, so maybe it was a try worth.
"Come on, we've got potions," Harry said as they walked out of the Great Hall after lunch. During the morning lessons they had gotten to know each other a bit more.
"Potions is crap," Ronald moaned in reply. "Let's just bunk."
"But -"
"Don't be such a wimp," Ron said harshly. "School's a waste of time. Who needs it anyways?"
"Harry," Hermione said, approaching them. "If you bunk I'll tell Professor Snape. Please come with me to lesson."
"Don't be daft," Ron said encouragingly. "What's he gonna do? Get you expelled?"
"He might very well do so," Ginny said as she joined them.
"Shut your stupid hole!" Ron roared, pulling Harry away in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.
"What are we going to tell him?" Hermione sighed. "Professor Snape I mean. After all Harry didn't say that he would be going with Ron who pulled him away against his will, right?"
Ginny shook her head. "He'd have gone with him anyways, Hermione. He could have resisted against my brother, broken away, but he didn't. He needs to learn his lesson."
Harry glared at Ron who sat in one of the armchairs in the Gryffindor common room, deeply asleep. First he'd dragged him here, said it was a waste of time to get a head start on their homework, didn't allow him to go to any afternoon classes and now he had fallen sleep. Soon the last lesson would be over and Hermione would probably come and tell him that Severus wanted to see him, then she'd leave him again. Ginny wouldn't even exchange a word with him, Harry knew that. He slumped down on another armchair and sighed heavily. Why had life to be so difficult? He had only been at Hogwarts for less than two weeks but already too much had happened for his taste. All he wanted was to have a quiet life, but somehow that was never to come true, not as long as he stayed here. But where else would he go? Maybe he should go and talk to Severus about what happened.
A moment later the door to the Gryffindor common room opened and the first Gryffindors came in, Hermione too.
"He seemed to ignore the fact that you bunked," she said as she walked past him.
Harry sighed again. Lucy's sudden leave really must have affected him.
"And don't forget," Hermione called. "We have our first flying lessons in an hour!"
As Harry and Ron made their way out of the castle they saw Draco and Quentin standing near the entrance door whispering.
"And don't forget," Quentin said as the boy approached them, turning away. "You have to do everything I told you!"
"Yeh, I will," Draco muttered, glaring at Weasley and nodding at Harry as the boys walked past.
Minutes later the Slytherin and Gryffindor first years stood in the Quidditch pitch, listening to Madam Hooch. After she finished her speech she said, "And now stand beside your broom, hold your hand flat above it and call 'Up!', and let it fly into your hand." The students did as she bid them, and the only ones who succeeded straight away were Harry and Draco. After a few attempts Ronald's broom shot up, missed his hand and hit him straight into the face. The Slytherins started sniggering and even Harry couldn't suppress a grin.
After some trouble very student managed to get the broom lying beside them into their hands.
"Mount them and kick off the ground at the sound of my whistle!" Madam Hooch called. "One, Two-" Before she got the chance to say three and blow her whistle Neville kicked off, nervously, and gained height faster than he could react to stop the broom.
"Stop!" Hooch shrieked. "Stop! Come down again!"
"I- I can't," Neville shouted back, stammering nervously. Somehow he managed to steer the broom towards one of the towers, fly around it and then come back towards the rest of the class. However, as he reached the bottom of the roof his cloak got caught on one of the roof tiles. The broom continued its way to the ground, leaving the boy to hang there. Neville's robe wasn't able to hold his weight though and so it started to tear, and a moment later he fell onto the hard ground of the Quidditch pitch, screaming in pain as there was a faint crack! and his arm broke beneath his body.
"Out of the way!" the teacher yelled, making her way past the students to where Neville had landed. She helped him up and then started walking towards the castle.
"Don't any of you dare to even mount those brooms," she snapped, Neville beside her sobbing. However, as soon as she was out of sight Malfoy exclaimed, "Look! What's this?" He picked something up from the ground.
"Give it back!" Hermione shouted, trying to grab the small crystal ball which was in his hand. "Neville got it from his grandmother this morning!"
Without a second thought Malfoy mounted his broom and shot up into the air. "Come and get it!"
Sensing that this was his chance to rebuild his friendship with Hermione Harry too mounted his broom.
"Harry! Madame Hooch said we shouldn't!" Hermione shouted as he kicked off the ground.
"Don't worry about me," Harry said carelessly as he slowly gained on height. None of her attempts to get him down onto the ground helped, and seconds later she was out of hearing distance. He followed Draco who was flying ten foot ahead of him. Suddenly he came to an abrupt stop, and Harry had just enough time to stop as well in order not to crash into the Slytherin.
"Want it?" Malfoy asked, holding his hand in which the ball was high in the air. He grinned. "Catch it!" He threw the round object with a sudden movement towards the castle, and Harry, without thinking, flew after it, gaining on speed with every second. Just before the ball hit one of the windows in one of the towers he managed to catch it, swinging his broom gracefully to avoid the piece of glass as well. He didn't know what that ball was, but he had caught it, and so he had hopefully caught Hermione's friendship again.
"... and also you can do whatever you like," the headmaster continued, looking at Minerva. "You do not have to do the musical if you don't want to."
"Of course," McGonnagall said, nodding understandingly. Then she smiled. "I'm glad my house rethought their decision of taking Professor Wintergarten as their help, especially after what happened to young Mr. Harry Potter."
"Yes," Dumbledore sighed. "When I employed her I never thought something like that would happen under her eyes, but it seems that I was wrong."
"Well, anyways," the transfiguration teacher said, standing up. "I'd better get going, I have some homework left to mark." She looked out of the window a last time before she left, however what she saw nearly gave her a heart attack.
"Whatever is the matter?" Albus questioned, following her stare. He just made out a hand reaching for something, then there was a weird object which looked similar to the back end of a broom, and only after a few minutes he figured out that that was Harry Potter sitting on a broom, that it had been Harry Potter who had nearly crashed through the window into his office.
"Albus!" Minerva shrieked as the headmaster fainted, hitting his head on the corner of his desk. However, she had to admit that the young boy had managed to catch whatever there had been flying towards the window, and that was a skill she needed for the seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
A/N: Hope you like it. A cold has plagued me for the last few days and my laptop still isn't repaired, so this is at the moment the best I could do.