Scarless
Disclaimer: The idea, characters, places, spells, and all things related to Harry Potter, are property of Ms. J. K. Rowling and Warner brothers. Anything not featured in the books is of my design. This story will have spoilers from the sixth & seventh & pretty much all of the books. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE HARRY POTTER BOOK SERIES, YOU PROBABLY SHOULD NOT READ THIS STORY, but you can if you want to. This story is based on the premise that Voldemort "dies" right out of Hogwarts.
Book 1: The Sorcerer's Stone rewritten or Harry Potter and the Mirror of Erised Chapter 8: Flight Class
Harry awoke early the next morning, and, seeing that it was still fairly dark out, headed down to the common room to write a letter. He wrote and explained to his mom and dad all about his first day, leaving out the bits about him being homesick. He did ask Mom if Dad had pranked Uncle Snape recently, because he had seemed to be in a foul mood. He was just penning in about Ron's unfortunate coloration mishap, when the object of that escapade stumbled down the stairs. Ron looked around as he reached the bottom of the stairs, then, yawning, muttered a quick hullo and headed off to breakfast. Harry chuckled, finished the letter, and followed.
The next few days flew by as Harry learned more and more. Just as his mother and father had said, his first Transfiguration lesson consisted of turning a matchstick into a needle. About three fourths of the way through the class, Harry managed to turn his matchstick in to a silver rod with a pointy end, but was not able to get the rounder end to get a hole in it. He kept trying for several moments, until a spark from his wand ignited the end of his "needle". It took McGonagall's intervention to extinguish the silver flames. Ron was still laughing during their following Charms lesson, and ended up causing the Color Charm he was trying to cast on a wooden block to make the block glow a fluorescent purple. Flitwick clapped his hands, but asked that Ron stick to turning the block blue next time.
The week seemed to blur by and Harry found that the class he was looking forward to was almost upon them. Flight Class. He had been flying before, but it had always been on a training broom that had set limits. There were no such limits on the Hogwarts Brooms, and Harry intended to push what limits they did have.
The group had trooped out on to the lawn, with Neville sticking close to Harry. Neville had had a fear of heights ever since he got stuck on the roof after falling from an open window. Harry patted his arm reassuringly, and Neville managed a weak smile. Harry noted that they were taking their lessons with the Slytherins. He caught Lilia's eye, she was standing by the brooms laid out on the grass. He smiled and she smiled wanly back. She had an even bigger phobia of heights than Neville.
Madam Hooch, the Flight Instructor, called for their attention. "All right, now listen up. You are about to go through your first Flight Class. For those of you who don't know, you will be riding broomsticks. First, everyone, line up beside a broom." The class shuffled around. Harry found himself next to Neville, with Ron on Neville's other side, and Draco Malfoy two brooms down from him. Lilia was across from Ron.
After she ensured that everyone had a broom, Madam Hooch turned back to the class. "Now, stick your right hand over the broom, and say 'UP!'"
The command was repeated all around, to mixed results. Draco, Harry, Diana, who Harry hadn't noticed at the end of the line, and a Slytherin boy who's name Harry couldn't recall, all had their brooms come up to their hands at once. The rest of the class got them up in three or four tries, except Neville, Lilia, and a Gryffindor girl Harry thought was named Lavender. Those three had to pick up their brooms, to stifled laughter from the class.
The class had been proceeding smoothly. The entire class, scared students included, had gotten through take off and landing. Neville and Lilia had opted to sit out of the more advanced flying, which mainly consisted of flying around as fast as you dared. Harry and Draco were currently racing each other around the Quidditch Pitch where the class was being held, when Lavender, who was struggling to fly without wobbling, slid into Draco's flight path. Draco was focused on Harry at the time, who had fallen behind, and didn't see Lavender until it was too late.
"What's the matter, Potter? Can't keep…" CRASH!
Draco's broom rammed into the back of Lavender's, causing twigs to fly in all directions. Draco's broom rocketed upwards, while Lavender's fell in a slow corkscrew. Lavender touched down rather gently at the same moment that Draco lost his precarious hold on his out of control broom and fell towards the ground. Madam Hooch, who had been instructing Dean Thomas, one of Harry's current house-mates, in the proper turning method for slower speeds, didn't realize the problem until Lavender screamed. Madam Hooch spun cursing and paled when she saw Draco falling towards the ground. She took off, intending to cast weight reduction and other similar charms to slow his fall, when a blur blocked her visions.
Harry, plotting his intercept like his dad had taught him, grabbed onto Malfoy about six feet from the ground. Madam Hooch managed to cast a weight-reduction charm on Draco just as Harry caught him, but the sudden decrease in weight caused Harry to jerk upwards, losing his grip on Malfoy. Malfoy continued on his former downward flight, but at a slower speed. He still landed with a crunching sound.
Madam Hooch was on the ground in an instant and made her way over to Draco. Harry flew down and both Lavender and Ron, who had flown over when Lavender had started to fall, made their way to Draco's limp form. Madam Hooch approached the fallen boy and saw that he was trembling. Worried that he might be seriously hurt, she reached out a hand, but took a startled step back when Draco abruptly stood. Madam Hooch tried to ascertain what had snapped, and was rewarded by the sight of Draco holding two pieces of splintered wood. A couple of the students gasped. Draco slowly made his way towards the castle. Madam Hooch, snapping out of her shock, followed.
One of the Gryffindor Girls, a Muggle-born, Harry thought, floating over on her broom and asked, "What happened?"
Lilia turned to look at her. "Draco fell. His wand snapped." Lilia said, quietly.
"So? Can't he go get another one?"
Lilia nodded. "Yes, and if your finger gets cut off, can't you just get a replacement? You form a sort-of bond with your wand, and…" She trailed off, shaking her head.
The girl still looked confused, but Diana silenced her with a hand on her knee when she opened her mouth again.
The group slowly moved up to the castle. They dropped the brooms off into a pile by the entrance to the Pitch and set off across the rolling green lawn. The class was rather silent, Draco's brush with death and broken wand weighing over them.
--
When Harry entered the Great Hall at dinner that night, he saw Draco sitting at the Slytherin Table looking subdued. He happened to catch Harry watching him and glared. Harry turned away.
The Feast proceeded smoothly. Just before the table's cleared, all of the gravy bowls along the Gryffindor table gained large waves, sloshing the thick broth all over several of the Gryffindors. As Harry moped off his glasses, he spotted Fred and George, spotless, high-five each other. Harry smirked and, pulling out his wand and pointing at their plates, muttered a variation on a spell Sirius had showed him. "Seflorus Tenaxa." As Fred and George went to pick up their chicken legs, they found them to be stuck fast to their plates. When they tried to pull their hands away from the pieces of chicken, they found their hands were stuck as well. Harry was laughing when, suddenly, the food vanished to be replaced with desserts. However, Fred and George vanished along with their pieces of chicken. Harry stared for a moment, blinking in shock. Then, the girl who had been sitting on the other side of the Weasley Twins, Alice Spinner, or something like that, screamed.
Dumbledore and Proffesor McGonagall stood quickly, both pale. They had started around the Head Table when, with a pop, Fred and George, who both were as pale as Dumbledore and McGonagall, reappeared in their seats, the drumsticks still stuck firmly to their hands. The entire hall had fallen silent and were staring at both Fred and George. The two of them looked at each other, looked at the drumsticks they were holding, and began to laugh.
Dumbledore's eyes were once again twinkling. He proceeded back to his chair and turned to make an announcement.
"Well, I must say, I have never seen students go chasing after their food when it vanishes." At this, the students began to laugh. Professor McGonagall, who didn't look as amused as Dumbledore, hustled the Twins out of the Great Hall, ostensibly to get them checked out at the Hospital Wing.
Harry was still rather stunned by what had just happened. That incident had just pushed home the message that his mother had continued to try and drill into his father and his godfather.
"Magic is not some toy you can just fiddle around with however you want. One of these days, your pranks are going to get messed up and you are going to seriously harm someone, because a prank got out of control."
Harry swore to himself that he would be a bit more cautious in his pranking from now on. That is not to say that he wouldn't do any pranking, just that he would be more careful.
--
However, the Weasley's twins "Trip through the Table", as it was being called, was not the biggest surprise of that night. Harry was walking back towards Gryffindor Tower, having checked on the twins, who, after being delivered to Madam Pomfrey's clutches…er…care, were forced to spend the night in the Hospital Wing. As he made his way around a bend towards a hidden staircase on the fourth floor, he almost bowled over a certain blond-haired student.
Draco stepped back after running into Harry, and, after identifying his 'assailant', he became rather aigitated.
"Oh, Potter. I…er…well…" Draco trailed off, looking rather bashful.
Harry blinked for a moment. Draco was acting weird.
Draco took a deep breath, then, staring Harry in the eye, stated, "Potter, I owe you my life. I just wanted to say thank you, and I hope we can be…allies." At this Draco paused and looked at Harry, awaiting his response.
Harry was stunned. For a brief moment, half-a-dozen voices rang through his head. His mother's voice telling him to accept that poor boy's offer, Sirius gloating about how it would be great to pull one over on the Malfoys, James and Ron both saying to stay as far away as possible from the filthy Slytherin, and Lilia simply stating that she would hex his toenails to grow backwards if he broke Draco's heart. He paused for a moment after that last disturbing thought, then held out his hand.
"Why not."
--
And that is that.
Next chapter will feature the group finding Fluffy through a much-different method than before. Will also include some Ron/Draco interaction.
Hope to hear from you all. Sorry about the wait.
Oh yes, and Seflorus Tenaxa is a distortion of the latin phrase for Unfading Clinging or Unfading Sticking. A variant of the Sticking Charm, but is not the Permanant Sticking Charm. Is more like the Sticky Charm.
Anywise, Please Review.