Hey everyone so glad you could join me for this new chapter, a bit of notification before we begin. I have finally graduated, so my time is for the most part my own, except for the second job that just fell into my lap. Thankfully the second job is relatively non-time consuming, but it will still take time that I had planned to dedicate to my own writing and to this fanfiction. I will be working on this throughout the summer but it may not be at the rate that I wanted to be cranking out the chapters, I hope that you all enjoy this next chapter. δ Also meet my new paragraph divider, because I just found out the ones I used previously didn't stay when I posted the chapter.
Northumberland, UK
24 September 1991
Hogwarts Castle
Great Hall
To say that their first few weeks of pure magical education at Hogwarts had gone by quickly was correct. They had been in the magical castle for three weeks, and had since then developed an opinion of the teachers and the material that their courses covered. Harry and his friends were disappointed in the slack curriculum that was offered compared to the Academy, and the teacher's demeanor in general. Harry and Hannah's Head of House and the Transfiguration teach, Professor McGonagall was strict and brief in her instruction. She was also fair compared to some of the other teachers when it came to the house of a student. She wouldn't overtly favor Gryffindor over another house, but on occasion it seemed some of her house were favored over others. Harry and his squad had decided that it was most likely unintentional, but it still irked them. Transfiguration as a subject had been one of Hestia's favorites when they were at the Academy, and once she was able to actually practice the magic she began earning more than a few house points. Charms was quickly becoming one of the cadets favorite classes, with the material being interesting and the teacher making the curriculum interesting and being fair to all of his students. Herbology was taught by the jovial and down to earth Professor Sprout, she was more interested in the safety of her student in the greenhouse and teaching than giving out points, and Harry and his friends really did like her as a teacher.
On the other hand, Professor Binns was the ghost that taught History of Magic, yes a ghost. A GHOST. Not only could the teacher not seem to be able to move on from the topic of Goblin rebellions, he also failed to keep the students from using his class as a nap period. Flora and Hannah were actually rather angry at that fact, since they were the ones that liked History as a subject. Harry normally managed to stay awake for these and Flora, Hannah and himself would spend some of the lesson drawing up battle plans for the Goblins, and fighting it out on scrap parchment. The other teacher that really bothered the group was Professor Snape, the potions teacher. There was no way to express the amount of dislike that they had for that greasy bat. The moment they were in the door for the first lesson the man was upon them, calling out Harry specifically as 'the newest celebrity'. He then continued by questioning Harry on potions that were not in the first year curriculum, some of it dipping into the sixth year material. Unluckily for the professor Harry had been reading ahead since they had been introduced to Potions at the Academy, and he calmly answered all of the man's questions. After that Snape had retreated to his desk and given them the instructions for the Boil Cure potion. The rest of the professors were rather unremarkable, mainly teaching their subject and then sending the first years out of the classroom.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was a class that put them all on their guard, there was something off about the teacher. His stutter wasn't consistent, he did his best to ignore his students, and he had this air around him. It wasn't friendly, it wasn't anger, it wasn't calm, and it wasn't indifference. It was something indescribable, but Harry knew he didn't like whatever it was. There was also the smell of garlic hanging around him which caused Hannah to have a bit of a reaction. During the break after that lesson, Harry had gone with her to the Hospital Wing to see what could be done for her. Luckily, the Nurse there was able to stop the allergic reaction and gave Hannah a couple of potions to take so she could adapt to the smell of it and also be able to eat it. At the moment Harry and Hannah were having breakfast in the Great Hall, cramming a few more centimeters of writing into their History of Magic essay that was due in an hour or so. They had been up early with Hestia and Flora doing a few laps around the lake before the rest of the school was awake. They hadn't gotten many laps in, the lake was significantly larger than the track they ran at the Academy and far less flat, so they managed about a kilometer and a half before stopping for the morning. They had all retreated to their dorms after to shower, and Harry and Hannah had made it back to the Great Hall quicker than the other two. There were only a half a dozen people in the Great Hall that early, with only one older Gryffindor sitting at the far end of the table. Another ten minutes went by before the Twins came back to the table and sat down. They pulled over toast and some fruits and dug in, making some light conversation with Harry once he set his essay down.
"Ready for another day of shite classes?" Flora was ever the optimist.
"History in the morning followed by Defense and double Potions this afternoon? This will be a good day to study for other classes." Hestia wouldn't normally say something like that, but the lack of anything interesting happening in those classes was starting to get to her.
"We need to sort out a better way of getting through those classes, History and Defense can be self-study, but it's hard to study Potions without a potion lab. We'll take a look around after class, and ask Cedric and Ariel if they know a better spot to practice. For now we keep moving on." Harry brought an end to that conversation as more and more students began trickling in from their dormitories. They all seemed to be talking excitedly about a notice that had been on the board, Harry hadn't seen it on his way out and asked the rest of his friends if they had.
"Yes I saw it, something about flying lessons going on tomorrow. I'd have to check when it is exactly…" Flora trailed off as Ron Weasley rounded the corner through the door and laid eyes on her and Hestia.
"What are you two doing over here?" He sneered at them, or well he tried, it came off as more of a pained grimace.
"Having breakfast with a few friends Weasley - what's it to you?" Flora wasn't afraid of the youngest Weasley boy.
"You can't sit here, it's the Gryffindor table, as in for our house only." His ignorance almost made Harry laugh, almost.
"I thought that, as this is Hogwarts, surely this is the Hogwarts table" but this bit of out of the box thinking clearly went over the boy.
"Firstly, they can sit anywhere we want unless it's at one of the Special Feasts. Secondly, even if that wasn't in the rules specifically they'd sit here anyway. Thirdly, we invited them. Fourth and lastly, it would take a lot more than you to scare them away from the table. Now, I have a slice of toast in my hand and I am not afraid to use it" Hannah was not happy in the mornings, made doubly so by the large amount of people around. So her tone was less than kind when addressing Ron. He opened his mouth and closed it again before turning on a heel and walking away from the group. Harry saw the other three boys from his year glancing at them questioningly. He waved them over with a friendly smile on his face.
They pulled up seats and began loading their plates, exchanging a few pleasantries before tucking into their food. Once they had gotten through a fair portion of their plates, the flying lesson came up. "Tomorrow at one I think it said, you guys excited?" Seamus asked from towards the far end of their small group.
"I think it'll be interesting, I've never been on a broom before so I don't know how I'll do." Dean was in the process of putting jam on his toast, a contemplative look in his eye. "Mind you, I've done a fair amount of roller coasters so I don't mind heights that much, but we'll see how it goes I guess." Neville blushed in what Harry assumed was embarrassment before speaking.
"I'm a little t-too clumsy for brooms, the f-f-few that I've been on I've fallen off o-of. I'm not sure I want to att-attend, but I'd be willing to give it a-a try I think." Neville was a relatively shy boy, with a lot of confidence issues as far as Harry could tell. He would try to fix that over the coming years.
"I think it'll be fun, and don't worry Neville. If anything goes wrong Madam Hooch will be there, and so will we." Harry tried to be reassuring, and he thought it worked from the way Neville seemed to relax. The rest of their conversation was cut short by Professor Flitwick passing by.
"Twenty points to each of your houses, for encouraging inter-house relations. It's always good to see students from other houses getting along." He smiled at them all, and continued walking up to the staff table.
"That was a nice way to start the day." Hannah remarked with a smile before picking up her bag and walking towards the door.
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Hours later in the day Harry found himself standing out on the grassy lawn between the castle and the Quidditch Pitch, beside him Hannah was doing her best not to be nervous and Neville looked like he was going to puke at any second. He pushed his attention to the instructor as she began to speak.
"Good afternoon, I am Madam Hooch the resident flying teacher of Hogwarts and Quidditch referee. Now I want all of you to put your dominant hand over the broom and say UP. Quickly now." Her voice was stern and her gaze made Harry feel like he was back at the Academy with the physical fitness teacher. Harry stared at his broom for a moment before commanding it upwards. It worked very well he thought, considering most of the class had yet to get their brooms to do more than roll around. Hannah and Draco Malfoy were the exceptions, Hannah had done as he had and commanded the broom into her hand, and Malfoy was just smirking haughtily at the world.
"Don't ask it Neville, command it - demand that it rise to your hand. Be confident." Neville glanced up at Harry and nodded before trying to do just that, and it worked. Mostly. The broom made it to his hand, but it was a slow and jerky rise. "See, just be more confident." Harry smiled at the pudgy faced boy before turning back to Hooch.
"Now I want you to mount your brooms, then on my whistle you will kick off from the ground, hover for a moment then touch back down. Trust in yourselves and in your brooms to get you there and back or this won't work." She turned her steely gaze upon them as they did as she asked. Harry threw a leg over his broom, getting a nod from the stern instructor as he did so. She brought the whistle to her lips once she saw that they had all managed that task, blowing hard.
Neville was off like a rocket, shooting fifty feet into the air before corkscrewing off into the distance. Hooch muttered more than a few choice words under her breath before grabbing a broom from a Slytherin first year and shooting off after the boy. They could barely make him out in the distance as the broom took him for a ride of its own design, but watched as best they could as he swooped back towards the castle diving up and around the towers before coming to a dead stop mid-air. More than a few of the girls on the ground screamed as they saw the boy lose his grip and go flying forward as the broom came to a complete stop. Luckily for Neville, Madam Hooch came soaring out from behind Gryffindor Tower to catch him before he got too much falling momentum. When they landed Neville was swarmed by most of the Gryffindors that were in the class, and more than a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. "I'll be taking you to Madam Pomfrey immediately, just in case. The rest of you may head to the Great Hall for lunch" she said with a mixture of disgust and anger. "Leave the brooms where they are."
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Neville had been very fortunate, something that Albus Dumbledore was grateful for. What he was not grateful for was the increasing amount of flak he was getting for allowing such a situation to occur. Everyone knew that the older a broom got the more spirited it got, for lack for lack of a better word. It didn't help when he tried to pass it off as Hooch's responsibility, and was promptly shown the parchment baring his signature denying her the funds to buy new brooms. He had protested and argued, and done everything short of throwing a tantrum, and it hadn't worked. The Board of Governors was stationing someone at his school to interview his students and poke his nose into the inner workings of Hogwarts, they had given him the man's name, but he didn't recognize the name O'Connell.
"I will have to move the Philosophers stone into my office for the time being, no sense in letting the man be too suspicious not that my dramatization at the opening feast will not do that. I'll have to strengthen the protection on the door leading into the corridor as well, well enough that a student could not bypass it." Dumbledore sighed sipping at the glass of scotch he held in his hand. He stood as the last of the natural light left his office, inwardly bemoaning the amount of work he was about to set off to do.
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A/N:
That there is the end ladies and gentleman, at least for now. I'm going to be pretty busy for the next week or so, but I'll do my best to make sure I get the next chapter at least partially completed. I'll give the first reviewer that guesses O'Connell's identity correctly a… cookie? *Turns to Pixel* Can we afford cookies? Anyway that all for now folks apart from suggesting you go to Pixel's Harry Potter/Thomas The Tank Engine crossover which is actually very good
Pixel: We can afford just the one cookie – Flitwick came round half an hour ago and stole the others. For such a small person, he sure is a speedy little bugger!