Chapter 11: Bedknobs and Broomsticks

A/N: Do Not own Harry Potter, D&D or the fabulous movie this chapter is named after.

November came upon them and with it the weather turned icy cold. Every morning the ground was covered in frost and Hagrid could be seem dedicating a fair amount of time up keeping the fields and assisting various creatures as he could. The Quidditch season had begun and on Saturday the first match would began, Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Hardly anyone thought Gryffindor could win, they had a fairly strong team but no dedicated seeker. Instead, a backup Keeper was in the front lineup today and word throughout the house was that Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Keeper and Captain was hoping to focus on goals. Harry and Hermione studied from Quidditch Through the Ages. Hermione muttering from time to time how she was wasting time studying a sport rather than something important like the Goblin Revolutions.

Harry just reminded her that like it or not, they were connected to the Wizard world and sports were a common conversation point. She sighed as usual and pointed out another contradiction in the rules. The day before the match, She, Harry and Neville were relaxing outside in the courtyard with a bright blue fire that Hermione had conjured, just to get themselves away from the excitement. Harry noticed Snape was crossing the yard with a limp, they wondered if he saw the fire. "Potter, Granger, Longbottom." He greeted them. "Professor Snape." Harry responded. "Glad to see you away from the... fools excited over nothing." He said. "Yes sir," Harry nodded. "Is that your fire?" He asked. "No sir, that belongs to Hermione sir. Hope it's not too much trouble." "Well, you are decidedly not in the corridors and I'm sure Professor Flitwick has already remarked on your clever use of Incendio." Hermione nodded smiling. "Now Potter, may I see how your Incendio shapes up?"

Harry gulped nervously,but thankful they were outside near no horribly flammable materials. He grabbed his wand and focused. The motions were much easier than Wingardium but fire was much more dangerous and control was really the key. He focused on a clear spot of ground with not much besides snow nearby. "Incendio!" He snapped towards the ground. A pleasant fire burst on the ground, crackling marvelously orange and yellow. Harry focused since there was no nearby fuel. Keeping the flame going using magic. Snape nodded, "Enough Potter." he said. Harry sighed and released his magic and the flame died quickly. "Impressive as well, Mr. Potter, I'm glad to see your studies doing you well." "Thank you sir." "I believe 2 points should cover that showing, Now I'd best be off, ingredients to collect." They nodded as Snape limped off. "Wonder why he's limping." Neville commented. "I don't know, you would think he would see Madame Pomfrey for that." Harry said. Hermione looked thoughtful, "He might want to take care of it himself, Potions Master and all that." Harry said nothing to that, the wounds had seemed like dog bites... only much larger. Harry recognized the patterns from his Aunt Marge and her monsters she called dogs.

"I'll be right back." He told the others, acting on a hunch, "I forgot something at Hagrid's the last time we visited." They nodded and he ran off sprinting towards the hut. It was only when he got there that he had no idea what he was going to say. He knocked on the door to no answer. "Hagrid?" He shouted. "Fang?" he tried. He only heard some clucking, and opened the door careful and peered in. Oddly enough 12 live chickens were tied up together hanging from the ceiling. "Who's that at my door!" He heard which made him jump, knocking right into the chickens and knocking them down letting them loose. Hagrid came in to the sight of Harry and the chickens all out of sorts. "Agh!" Hagrid scooped them all up quickly and tied them up again. "Now what're you doing with Fluffy's dinner?" Seeing an opening, Harry went for it, "Fluffy? Is that the name of your dog?" "Yea, poor fella's cooped up in the-" "Castle? Third Corridor?" Harry asked, Hagrid frowned. "Dumbledore forbid ya from going there. Nothing's up there that don't concern you." "But why would Snape be injured by Fluffy?" "Snape? Injured? By Fluffy?" Hagrid laughed then frowned again, "He should know better to ask me, Dumbledore or Nicolas Flamel before going in there himself." "Who's Nicolas Flamel?" Harry asked. Hagrid looked furious with himself. "I'll have to ask ye to leave Harry, before I have to report you to Dumbledore for askin' too much." Harry gulped and ran back to his friends. "Find what you were looking for Harry?" He nodded and sat down, winded but excitement running through his mind. "You've got to listen to this..." he started.

After a very rousing loss to Slytherin, Harry, Draco and Ron were up in the library searching for Nicolas Flamel. Harry had let them know what had happened as well, and had reasoned with them that the best place to start was the library. Draco had nodded, but Ron groaned. "Why can't Hermione help with the library end?" "You owe her many times over for having her help you on some essays. Besides, she's busy running an experiment or something. I don't quite understand it myself." They combed the library starting with the obvious titles like Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, Notable Magical Names of Our Time and so on. They had to start somewhere, sometimes Harry went alphabetically in the sections he could. The Wizarding World seemed to not have heard of something called the Dewey Decimal system according to Hermione. Harry searched when he could but only found odd pockets of time. Finally it was nearing the holidays, Hermione and Draco were helping him with, what was for them, one last search. They were heading home for the holidays, while Ron was staying with him. Neville had yet to really decide, but seemed oriented towards heading home as well. "Such a pity we haven't found him yet. I might search our personal library at home, though I'd rather not Father find out just yet." Draco commented. Hermione made him promise to keep looking. They sighed and made their way back to the dorms.

As they walked through the halls, Harry felt a sensation he hadn't felt for months. "Wands out." he said.

Hermione pointed down the hall. An oddly large bug like creature was scudding towards them, looking hungry. "Not again..." Harry sighed, Hermione smiled, "This one should go quick if it's just a magical bug. INCENDIO!" She flicked her wand at the creature and a jet of flame shot out that bounced off the creature. Hermione frowned as she made another gesture to stop the flame from hitting the castle walls itself. "My turn, let's see what you've got! INCENDIO!" Draco made his try at the spell but it too bounced off, grumbling as he canceled it from hitting the wall. Harry knew it was time to try something different, in fact since the Arts didn't come up in classes as much as he liked, he prepared and had practiced other spells. Now was time to try something a bit more fun than a Color Spray. "Evocatous Mistis, Arcanus Projecta!" A missile flew out of his hand straight into the creature seeming to hurt it. It screeched and It's oddly shaped antennae flew towards him aiming towards his pouch. The antennae missed and the monster screeched in anger. "Let me try again! Flippendo!" Hermione tried the Knockback Jinx. It missed and she started looking angry. "Might as well try this! Wingardiun Leviosa!" Draco Cast, the odd creature was lifted up and flipped upside down. "Nice Draco! Now let's try again, INCENDIO!" Harry cast. The bright blue flame hit dead on and seemed to burn hard. The Monster screamed in pain. It desperately tried to right itself upright, and Harry felt an odd sensation. "Hit it before it can get up!" Harry shouted. "INCENDIO!" Hermione and Draco cast, They both hit and the monster was still moving about to get back up, "Oh no you don't, INCENDIO!" Harry cast as well. Another bright blue flame jet out and burnt the bug to a crisp, leaving no remains besides the shell.

They breathed to themselves and calmed their nerves. Unlike the troll, it didn't seem like any Professors were coming. "Seems like first years are pest control." Draco grumbled, "Didn't Dumbledore tell you he was making this school safer for first years?" Harry nodded, "I'm afraid I'll have to tell my father about this." Draco continued. "By all means." Harry said. "I hope that doesn't reflect poorly on the school, we've been learning a lot." Hermione said. Draco thought to himself, "The practical use of our magic is a nice change of pace from all the theory. I mean Harry made his flames bright blue. Twice." Harry smiled at that, he HAD been improving both his magic and Arts. Maybe the random monsters they ran into weren't too bad after all.

A/N: Combat for those interested again, the creature was a rust monster that sensed the metal telescope or scales in Harry's pouch (my justification for the odd encounter roll). Initiative went Hermione, Draco, Harry and Rust Monster. I made D20s on Incendio as they cast it as a jet of flame. It kept barely missing the AC (hitting the creature but not causing damage). Wingardium seems to work based off concentration rather than the creatures own defenses (and some sources have wizards using Wingardium on robes in a combat situation) I then used Touch AC as the creature was upside down and we finally hit. Concentration checks for incendio rules damage, 1d20, 1-5 is 1d4, 6-10 is 2d4 and so on. Harry made some nice concentration checks. Getting up constitutes an AoO and all the hits left the monster dead. Harry has been earning RP XP, sometimes small, the first chapters earned a good bit of RP XP and later ones less due to three combat situations. I cannot wait for Harry to level up, but am keeping myself as impartial as I can. (Being in the roles of both DM and PC is odd)