Chapter 10 - Falling

"Congratulations Miss Granger, 5 points to Gryffindor!" Professor McGonagall was actually smiling. Holly almost couldn't believe it.

What she could believe in a heartbeat was Hermione being the only one to change anything major about her matchstick. It looked almost like a needle and was metallic. She really deserved it as well, Holly hadn't seen anyone else work so hard on their homework.

Her own matchstick was a different story entirely. Almost everyone had been able to make their matches roll over or flick off the table by accident. Holly's hadn't even done that. She couldn't find the right pathway for her magic no matter how hard she tried.

She'd gotten lucky earlier this week when casting Lumos. Frustrated, she had just been repeating the motions and words to see what stuck and struck gold. If she followed the gap that got mirrored when saying "Lu-" , then following the same path backwards, and finishing "-mos" made her wand light up.

From then on, any time she tried to cast it, it worked instantly. It was almost like her magic remembered the correct path when it felt her intent to cast the spell. Only, it had taken her one and a half weeks and stupid dumb luck to learn it.

Holly didn't need to be in Divination to foresee a lot of failing grades for practical magic. Unless she got lucky at least.

It was time. Today was finally the day they'd be learning how to fly. For over a year now it had been her dream to fly alongside Hedwig through the cold night and observe her hunting. But even before that Holly had been excited about flying. Being free as a bird and able to go anywhere.

Speaking about Hedwig, she must have returned from the Dursley's since she was circling above Holly. Thankfully she'd seen her in time, or else the package Hedwig dropped would have landed on Holly's head. This was getting dangerous, she'd have to talk to Hedwig about scaling back the pranks. Or maybe she was just annoyed by the Dursley's antics. Just imagining Petunia trying to bind a package to Hedwig's leg had her almost in a fit of giggles.

Having successfully caught the parcel, she began unwrapping the paper packaging while Hedwig stole some bacon off her plate and took off again. The first thing to appear was a letter that was laying on top of a small box.

Holly decided to read the letter first. She was touched when aunt Petunia complained about how lonely it was to do all the chores alone. It might sound bad to others, but this was as close to an "I love you, miss you!" Holly would likely get. Petunia also told her to not write too often, apparently the neighbours had looked weird at her when seeing Hedwig.

The rest was idle small talk, how she was doing, the newest gossip and trends. And finally a description about what was in the package.

This belonged to your mum, I think she made it shortly after graduation but must have forgotten it at our parents house. Anyways, I think you'll appreciate it more than me.

Holly practically ripped open the box to reveal… a glass ball with some smoke in it?

"Who sent you a remembrall Holly?"

She looked up at Lavender's question.

"What's a remembrall?"

"It's a magical object that tells you when you've forgotten something."

Holly could hear snickers coming from behind her at the Slytherin table. Apparently they found that amusing, so she shot them a dirty look and then ignored them.

"How does it work?"

"When you hold it in your hand and you have forgotten something the smoke will turn red."

That was it? No clue as to what you forgot? Seemed kind of pointless to her. Ironic that her mum would forget about her remembrall though. But when she picked it up the smoke didn't turn red, no. The smoke disappeared entirely revealing a small pin floating within.

Head Girl Lily Evans 1977-1978

It was her mum's head girl pin. She had been head girl!? Why hadn't Professor Snape mentioned anything?

It was Parvati who broke her out of her thoughts. "So, what did you forget?"

"Huh?"

"The smoke turned red, look!" Parvati said pointing at the pin-ball, fitting name and pun definitely intended. But when Holly looked down it was still the same as before.

"But it's not a remembrall. Here, you try and hold it!" Holly could see the exact moment when the doubt on Parvati's face vanished and instead turned into wonder after she handed the glass ball over.

"The smoke is gone! You didn't tell me your mum was head girl, Holly." Looking at the little glass ball now, she could see the red smoke filling it. Holly wondered why her mother would enchant it to only show the pin when holding it.

"Because I didn't know either, my aunt said she found it at my grandparents' home years ago and sent it to me. Isn't it neat!"

Holly also showed it to Lavender and Hermione, who were both equally impressed by her mum having been head girl and her ability to enchant the pin-ball to make it seem like a remembrall.

When they left for their morning classes, Holly stuffed it in her robe pocket. She'd need to find a proper place to display it in her dorm.

When Parvati and Lavender emerged from the castle for their flying lesson Holly burst out laughing. They were wearing some really weird looking pants with padding in certain areas.

"Aw shut up Holly!" Lavender was blushing. "This is the newest trend for the modern witch and a must for a comfortable broom riding experience…" She sounded like she didn't believe it herself.

"I'm sure," more giggling , "that those balloons on your arse will make it more comfortable to sit on a broom!" Holly was laughing so hard that her stomach cramped.

"They can't be that bad can they?" Parvati asked while trying to look behind herself at her own butt cushions. "I can't believe you convinced me to buy these, Lav."

"What do you mean!? You were the one who was afraid of bruising your royal arseness!" Screeched Lavender in return. Holly was clutching at her stomach from laughing by now, these two were hilarious.

When Hermione joined them outside with the Gryffindor boys, they made their way to the field where the lesson was supposed to be held. She only raised an eyebrow at the duo's outfit before launching into a tirade of broom riding tips from one book or another.

The Slytherins they shared the class with were of course all already there, lined up next to the brooms on the ground. Filling in the remaining spots, Holly ended up between Longbottom and Malfoy who kept throwing insults at each other, right over her head.

They didn't stop even when Madame Hooch, a yellow eyed woman with short grey hair and also their teacher, showed up. She had to threaten them with not being allowed to fly to make them quiet down. It helped, until they started whispering the insults instead, whenever Madam Hooch had her back turned to them.

They went through the basics first, a strong "Up!" to call your broom to your hand, correct sitting and hand positions. To Longbottoms delight, Malfoy had apparently held his broom wrong for years. Holly's highlight was either when her broom instantly shot up into her hand with a resounding smack, or when Madam Hooch chastised her roommates for improper attire.

"Ladies, broom riding is a dangerous sport. If you want to learn to ride sideways and how to break your neck, do it on your own time. Because that's the only thing your fashion goods are useful for!"

They were grounded for this lesson and sent to the library to study instead, something that Hermione seemed genuinely jealous of. Those 3 still didn't really get along yet sadly enough, so it got a little awkward in their dorm sometimes. Especially when the two hogged the bathroom for their morning routines and Hermione wanted to brush her teeth quickly before looking something up in the library. Before breakfast.

"Alright, we'll go in groups of 5. On my whistle, you will kick off the ground hard, hover for a bit and then come back down by leaning forward." Madam Hooch instructed, it seemed easy enough.

Holly was a little afraid her scar would interfere with the broom like it did the potion ingredients, but when she kicked off after the whistle and gently hovered in the air all her worries disappeared.

The feeling of flying was exhilarating, the air tasted different this high up and Holly felt freer than ever before. She could have stayed up there for hours.

Sadly, the peace didn't remain. Surrounded by two knob heads who were trying to pull at each other's robes or hit the other, Holly got annoyed. Madam Hooch had her back turned since one of the other two in their group had drifted off and couldn't get back to the ground without help.

That's when disaster struck. Spectacularly missing their slap, one of the boys hit Holly on the back instead.

Her broom lurched forward and in an attempt to correct the trajectory she pulled at the handle. Only, that's when her broom decided it didn't like her magic after all and started bucking to try and throw her off.

Holly could hear laughter from the two boys behind her and the Slytherins below. Hermione was screaming for Madam Hooch to help.

Hands seemingly stuck to the broom, it tried wilder and wilder manoeuvres to shake her off. From nosedives, hard side to side movements to spinning, the only thing Holly could do was try and hold on.

It was a loop that finally unseated her. She was barely hanging on by one hand when the broom accelerated downwards and hit her in the shoulder. Letting go from the shock, Holly tumbled to the ground in a heap with a resounding CRACK.

She didn't know how far she'd fallen, but her whole body hurt. Madame Hooch rushed over to her and helped her to her feet with a comment about a broken wrist. It definitely felt like more than that.

"None of you is to move while I take Miss Potter to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be thrown out of Hogwarts before you can even think about saying "Quidditch". Come on then, dear."

"Miss Potter, I had hoped you would have less of a penchant for trouble than your father." No matter how much she was hurting, that perked her right up.

"You knew my father?"

"Oh yes, always getting into and oftentimes causing trouble with his little friends." Holly was hanging on to her every word. No one had really talked to her about her father before.

"Could you mayb-"

"Ehem. Miss Potter, you just fell 20 feet off a broom!" Right… Madame Hooch was still here.

"Quite, could you help her to bed 3 Rolanda? Thank you." Madame Hooch left back to the lesson once Holly was settled on the bed.

Madame Pomfrey fixed the broken wrist with a quick jab of her wand. There was a small snapping sound, the feeling of grinding bone in her arm (why was wizard medicine so disturbing) and then relief. The process hadn't even hurt. Or rather not made it hurt more than it already did.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done about the various bruises other than some bruise cream. And Holly had a lot of those. A big one on her shoulder and chest from the broom hitting her, quite a few along her back from her landing, and worst of all, a whole bunch on her inner thighs.

Lavender and Parvati would never let her live it down how she wouldn't have gotten those if she had worn one of their ridiculous outfits.

It was a little uncomfortable to sit naked in the hospital wing with just a privacy curtain between her and other patients. She'd have loved to be in the private room again. Maybe it was in use already. Stretching to reach her back to apply the cream hurt quite a bit, unfortunately Madame Pomfrey was busy with some other mishap and couldn't help her.

She'd had some quiet time to think of a good hypothesis as to why flying hadn't gone wrong in the beginning. Just kicking off with her legs and holding on hadn't been a problem. The broom had behaved until she'd had to use her hands to control it.

At least now Holly knew that she couldn't fly a broom… unless. Unless she borrowed those gloves from Professor Snape. It didn't hurt to ask… probably. Hopefully just her dignity and nothing more.

Holly was about to rush out of the hospital wing to do just that when she was stopped by the matron.

"Did the bruise cream set in alright? I know some of the bruises were in a precarious area, but that's all the more reason to make sure they heal properly."

Holly blushed bright red. Was Madame Pomfrey fond of potty humour and this was supposed to be a joke or…? She already knew it'd hurt to use the loo with bruises there, no need for her to rub it in.

"I had no problem with applying it, the bruises are almost gone, thanks!" A hand landed on Holly's shoulder when trying to push past Madame Pomfrey.

"Take the day off tomorrow, running all over the castle in your state is not recommendable. As for your earlier question. I didn't know him well, but I think Minerva was his head of house and should have a story or two for you." At Holly's clueless expression she added, "Professor McGonagall."

"Ah, thank you. For both, the healing and the tip. I'll ask her about it."

And then she was off to the dungeons.

A flat "no" was all she got from Professor Snape when she finally found him stalking through the dungeons. He had looked annoyed when she called his name out loud, like she'd ruined his whole week. The jerk.

"But why ever not? You can't be needing them the whole time!"

"Quiet you." He hissed. "Might I remind you that I'm only lending them to you for the sole purpose of giving you the opportunity to learn the important art of brewing that was highly regarded by your mother.

Letting you play silly games on broomsticks is not on my list of priorities! Not to mention it wouldn't work anyways."

Why wouldn't they work? With the gloves on she could grip the handle and fly the broom like anyone else. The magic would be isolated from the handle… and so she wouldn't be able to activate the enchantments within. Bollocks!

"Finally got it then? Good then stop pestering me. If you want to fly so badly, step off the boat house's pier. It'll be a short flight but I hear the water is quite refreshing this time of year."

Holly was about to protest that stepping off a platform to fall into water was not flying, when it finally hit her. What if she didn't fall after stepping off…

"Thank you so much Professor, you're brilliant!"

The only thing she heard while running off was a quiet "Of course".

Her mind was going a hundred miles a minute thinking of ideas as to how to make it work. Enchanted wings were out, too heavy and unwieldy. A magic parachute was just falling again, but slower. Carpets definitely not, they were still banned and also pretty boring.

No, what she needed was something fun, quick, easy to carry around. Something you always wore so you could use it in a pinch, like your shirt or, or your shoes. That was it! She'd make magic roller skate boots. She already knew how to make stuff float, now it was just about making it sustainable and fit to transport people.

Hours later Holly had moved her armchair to one of the windows in the common room. It was just between the entrance and the fireplace. Her notes were strewn about the small table that was right under the window. There was usually a tea set and a flower pot on it, but Holly had set those aside.

She'd made good progress already and was now just gazing out into the countryside. It was a beautiful night, everyone else had already gone to bed. But Holly was too excited to sleep. She'd expected the design phase to be much harder. With a little more time, Holly could be flying on her own soon.

What she didn't expect though, was the portrait to suddenly swing open, startling her. There was a lot of scrambling and heaving breaths. Holly didn't dare make a sound, they'd been out after curfew and it was too interesting not to eavesdrop. Thankfully she was well hidden in the big armchair.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a beast like that locked up in a school?" That was definitely Weasley. So probably Longbottom as well. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does. It gained 2 extra heads of weight!"

A dog with 2 extra heads, were they talking about Fluffy?

"You two don't ever use your eyes, do you?" Was that Hermione, how had she gotten involved in rule breaking? "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" There he was, Longbottom. "I was too busy with its heads and that goofy blanket one of them had in its maw. Did you see the teeth? It could shred us alive!"

Aw, Fluffy still had her blanket. And it wasn't goofy. A bone pattern was more than appropriate for a cute puppy.

"Of course it was standing on the ground, you dunce. But there was a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something in the forbidden corridor."

And Holly could guess as to what already. Hagrid had been at Diagon the day of the break in, he was nervous and lying about where Fluffy was in the same way he was nervous when she'd asked him about the mystery package in vault 713 last year. So he'd probably emptied that vault before anything could be stolen. Now she'd just have to find out what that anything was.

And visit Fluffy in the forbidden corridor for some belly rubs of course.