Chapter 8: One Giant Fly

A/N: It dawns on me that I said we'd be getting into Magic vs the Arts, especially as it pertains to Harry. That didn't really happen last chapter, nor really this chapter. Please excuse my premature excitement. I don't own a thing, by the way.

After lunch, Neville, Ron, Hermione and Draco joined Harry in going to Hagrid's hut near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hermione and Draco were arguing good-naturedly about the weight limit of the Levitation Charm. Draco firmly believed that the charm could theoretically move anything and a sufficiently powerful caster could move say, a castle. Hermione, being more practical, had decided that physics didn't work that way even with magic, and thought that since magic operated on will and skill that if a wizard focused solely on that spell, even they would be hard-pressed to move things that people knew were incredibly difficult to move. "I'm telling you, people, even Wizards have mental blocks. You go through life being taught that a castle is something that should not be easily demolished by a single person and your unconscious believes it, even if it's your enemies castle." Hermione finished as they came to the front door of Hagrid's hut. Harry sighed, and Ron turned to the two of them, "Can we stop this for now? Wingardium Leviosa lifts things, it lifts light things, it lifts heavy things. MAYBE it lifts wickedly heavy things, but neither of you two will know until you make a trip to the library together, ask a professor who probably hasn't researched it or grow up enough to try it yourselves." Ron breathed in and out a bit heavily, obviously put off by the conversations he found himself in all too often. "Umm... Ron? It's... Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa." Neville piped in. Ron just groaned and knocked on the door to escape the conversation.

Hagrid answered and took them all in, "Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, keeping a firm hold on an enormous black boar hound, "If I knew I'd have this many guests, I'd have tied Fang up outside!" He smiled as he said this and did just that. There was only one room, jam-packed with game, a kettle and a massive bed. Hagrid came back in to them sitting at the table waiting for him on some logs as stools. "Hey Hagrid," Harry said and smiled, "This is Ron, Hermione, Draco and Neville." Hagrid nodded as he poured water into a teapot and put some oddly shaped cakes on a plate. "A Weasley, a Malfoy and a Longbottom eh? Interesting company you keep there Harry. Though I think you and your friend Hermione balances them all out." That felt a little awkward to Harry, but he guessed that being at Hogwarts for some time, Hagrid had gotten to know some wizarding families. They pretended to eat the odd cakes as they seemed hard enough to break teeth as they talked a bit about their week. Finally, it was time. "So... Hagrid." Neville started and looked to Harry. "Right, Neville and I got lost on the first day of school on the way to History of Magic." "Dreadful class that is." Ron said, "You didn't even stay awake to know that!" Hermione complained. "That's where you ended up, wondered why you were late." Draco said thoughtfully. Harry sighed, "Not exactly what I wanted to talk about, we got there. Anyway, Neville and I... Er..." "We ran into some... bugs. Big ones. centipedes by the look of it." "Oh is that what they were? They were crazy large though, hard to tell."

Hagrid looked between the two of them. "So what'd you do?" He asked, taking on a more serious tone. Neville looked to Harry and Harry sighed. "I used what magic I know and knocked them both unconscious, we don't even know if a professor found them or what happened to them." Hagrid nodded, "That explains Filch then. He's been searching for the ones who did that." Meanwhile though, Ron, Hermione and Draco looked at Harry surprised. "Harry, even I don't think I could take on two monsters at once. Flippendo targets one at a time and unless you've got a huge magical core, Incendio likely wouldn't do too much. How'd you knock them both out?" Hermione said, and Neville spoke up saying something softly that nearly made Harry wince "Without his wand." "What?" Draco said, "You mean you can already do wandless magic?"

Harry looked over to Neville, who nodded back to him and looked to Hagrid, who he thought already knew maybe a little more. "I used my own brand of wandless magic. A well placed Color Spray did them both in at once. I think I just got lucky though, as usually it shouldn't do so much at once."

Hagrid coughed before any more questions could be asked. "Listen Harry, even though it's darn useful that you can do so much so early, but you shouldn't go revealin too much about yerself."

"What?" "Er... How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot – great with animals." Harry sighed as Ron chose this time to pay attention to the topic change and started talking to Hagrid about Charlie's work with dragons. Harry found a newspaper clipping about the Gringotts break-in, but choose to keep it to himself, it seemed Hagrid would not be too forthcoming and maybe it was time to talk to higher authorities.

Of course, since Free time was over that afternoon and Harry found no time that afternoon to find Mcgonagall or Dumbledore alone. Hermione, Neville and Ron kept giving him weird looks, but since he was doing about average in his classes they left him alone. They spotted a notice that drew all of their attention away from the tension. Flying lessons would be starting Thursday, and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together. They groaned together about the idea of practicing flying in front of the notoriously annoying Slytherins. Malfoy promised they'd be ok as he regaled them with tales of his first flight and Ron assured them it'd be better than Fred and George slapping him on a broom and finding a way to make him zoom off in fear. He shivered in fear if anyone asked him for details.

The day arrived too soon and Harry found himself on the grounds in front of a broom. "Well, what are you all waiting for?" Madam Hooch barked, "Stick out your hand and say 'Up'!"

Harry's broom jumped into his hand, Hermione's rolled over a bit, Nevilles stayed on the ground. Ron and Malfoy also held their brooms and smiled at Harry. They mounted their brooms and Madame Hooch made sure their grips were correct. Malfoy informed Madame Hooch he was used to a Eastern Grip, but could try to practice Western Grip if she liked. Madame Hooch then counted down and they all took off, Neville took off like a cork shot out of a bottle, Hermione jumped off the ground like she didn't even have a broom. But Harry, Ron and Malfoy made it to the air safely. Harry watched as Neville flew off and was losing control. Without thinking, he raced towards him, heedless of any danger. As Neville lost grip of his broom, Harry moved even quicker and was surprised when another set of arms helped him catch Neville before he could hurt himself. Draco was the owner of the other set and smiled. They watched as the broom, ownerless was still rising. Harry looked on in concentration and picked out his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" He tried, the broom stalled, then took off like a rocket towards the forest, Harry having not moved his wand at all. "Ugh, sorry Neville. Not enough practice I guess." "Thanks for trying... Um... can we get down now please?" Harry and Malfoy laughed and they set Neville down. Madame Hooch came up to them and thanked them both with a 5 points to Gryffindor, each. "You know, you two could be very good additions to the Quidditch team next year." She said and they both sighed, wishing they could do more than practice maneuvers this year.