Year One - Chapter 8
—Flight classes, Gryffindor and Slytherin this Thursday... Wait, today is Thursday. —I began to read the sheet of paper that had appeared this morning in the common room.
—Perfect, now I'll make a fool of myself on a broom in front of Malfoy.
—Don't worry Harry, I don't think you're going to make a fool of yourself. —Ron said.— Also, he's always going on about how good he is flying, but I bet it's all talk, isn't it, Eileen?
—Well, he's better than me, but it's not saying much, a few weeks ago I fell off the broom when I was so close to the floor of the Quidditch pitch. I wasn't even going that fast.
—Wait, on the Quidditch pitch? Where did you get a broom? First years are not allowed to have one.
—I used your brother's, Fred.
—Since when are you friends with them?
—Oh, I don't know, maybe since the two of you always seemed to not want to be my friends.
—Well... Don't think we don't like you, Leen, but you are always with Hermione. And she's, well...
—Come on, let's go have breakfast, I'm starving.
During our walk to the Great Hall, I spent most of the time arguing with Ron about Hermione not being so bad, although for the past couple of days she has been a bit mad with me since I didn't want to start studying for the exams... Which are not until June! June! And we're only in October. That's why I've been spending more time with Harry and Ron lately.
When we entered the Hall, we saw that Hermione and Neville were already at the Gryffindor table and since there was no other place to sit, we had to sit with them. Neville was so nervous that he looked like he was going to be sick at any moment... Ugh, I better sit next to Hermione.
—Where have you been all morning, Mione? You weren't in the room when I woke up.
—I woke up early, as always, and I saw that we would have our flight class today so I went to the library to look for a book about how to fly. I found this one called "Quidditch through the ages". Did you know that in the Quidditch World Cup in 1473 the 700 infractions that exist were committed?
Mental note: Hermione seems to forget that she was upset with you if you let her keep talking about a book.
—No, but I bet you already memori- ow! Eileen, why are you hitting me?
—Oops, sorry Ron, my foot slipped.
—But we are sitting!
Breakfast was a little boring, Hermione kept telling us everything she had read in the Quidditch book until the owls finally arrived with the mail, I didn't get anything, but Neville had been sent a Remembrall, which didn't surprise me in the least, I wonder how long it will take him to realize he forgot his cloak.
Several minutes had already passed and while Neville was still trying to remember what he had forgotten, Draco passed us and took the reminder from him, Harry and Ron looked like they were ready to fight with him as if they had been waiting for a long time, but luckily Professor McGonagall was close and stopped them before anything happened.
—What is happening?
—Malfoy took my Remembrall
—I was just looking.
He put the Remembrall back on the table and left, followed by Crabbe and Goyle. At 3:30, after classes, we walked down into the grounds for our first flying class, some students like Ron and Seamus were completely excited, while others like Hermione and Neville were still completely nervous.
Madam Hooch, the teacher, asked us to stand to one side of the brooms and yelled "up" so that the broom could fly into our hands; It only took me a couple of tries to finally get the broom in my hand, though Harry managed to do it on the first try, while Hermione's kept moving on the ground. Wow, the first time I'm better than her at something!
—Now, —Madam Hooch began to speak when everyone had the broom in their hands.— When I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard, rise a few feet and go back down. One, two...
But before the whistle blew, Neville was already climbing through the air, faster and higher and higher, until he finally fell face down on the grass, along with the sound of his dignity breaking.
—Broken wrist...
Oh no, he just broke his hand, it seems he still has some dignity.
—None of you is to move as I take him to the infirmary! If you do, you will be out of Hogwarts before you can say Quidditch.
As soon as Madam Hooch was a couple of meters away from us Draco started laughing.
—Did you see that idiot's face?
The rest of the Slytherin and I started laughing, even though I chuckled and covered my hand, Hermione noticed it and hit me with her elbow, making me stop laughing.
—Shut up, Malfoy. —Parvati said.
—Sticking up for Longbottom? —Pansy said, giggling along with the other Slytherins.— I didn't think you liked fat little cry babies.
—Look, Longbottom's Remembrall. —Draco said as he picked it up off the ground.
—Put that down, Malfoy.
—Who will stop me, you, Potter? I'm going to leave it in a safe place... How about at the top of a tree?
—Give me that, Malfoy
But Draco had already climbed on his broom and was flying in the direction of the tallest tree and Harry began to climb on his broom, ignoring Hermione's complaints, he got on very easily and began to chase Draco, he flew so easily that even It looked like he had been on a broomstick since he was a baby.
They were flying so high that you couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were undoubtedly discussing something, suddenly I could see how Draco launched something and Harry began to fly down, with increasing speed,
He kept falling and falling that I worried that he would crash on the ground but just a foot from the grass he managed to grab the Remembrall and straighten the broom so that he would not crash.
—HARRY POTTER! In all my years... Never...
We heard that someone yelled at him from afar, first I thought Madam Hooch had returned from the infirmary, but it was Professor McGonagall (although for Harry it would probably have been better if it were Madam Hooch) and apparently, she had seen everything and seemed to be speechless, although I don't blame her, all of us had been left with our mouths open after seeing that impressive flight.
—How dare you? You could've broken your neck!
—Professor, it wasn't his fault.
—Be quiet, Miss Snape.
—But it was Malfoy...
—Not one more word, Weasley. Potter, come with me. Now.
After a few minutes, Madam Hooch returned and continued the class as if nothing had happened, luckily there was no other accident. I did so well in class that I started to love flying more and decided that I would try to enter the Quidditch team next year.
When the class was over, and after I slapped Draco on the head because Harry was probably going to be expelled because of him, we went to the common room to wait for him, but we did not see him again until dinner time when he had told us that instead of being expelled, McGonagall had made him the Seeker of the Quidditch team.
—But I thought Ron had said that first-years are not allowed to be on the team.
—That's right, you would be the youngest player in...
—A century, Wood told me, he also told me that I will start training next week, but don't tell anyone, he wants to keep it a secret.
Fred and George approached Harry and patted him on the back.
—Well done Harry. —George said, almost whispering.— Wood told us, we are also on the team, we are Beaters.
—Now we will win the Quidditch Cup this year. —Fred said.— We haven't won since Charlie left Hogwarts, so you have to do it right Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us.
—Well, we have to go, Lee said he had found another passageway outside of Hogwarts.
—Surely it's the one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy, we found him in our first week. Eileen, want to come with us?
—How come you invite her to do all kinds of things? I'm your brother!
—Hmm... I don't know... Is my father here?
—Nope. —They both said at the same time.
—Then, yes, let's go.
The three of us left the Hall (not without I first grabbed a chocolate muffin) and headed towards the fifth floor, where we saw Lee.
—You're finally here, guys. Oh hullo, you're Snape's daughter, right?
—I have a name, but yes. It's Eileen.
—Sorry, I forgot, haven't seen you since we met on the train. Anyway, I found a passageway behind the statue of...
—Gregory the Smarmy, we know, we already know it. —Fred and George said at the same time, which was a little scary every time they did it, it was as if they could read their minds and agree on what to say.
—Well, why didn't you tell me?
Lee seemed a little disappointed, Fred and George just lifted their shoulders, trying to downplay the issue.
—Well, where does the passage lead? —I asked.
—Hogsmeade.
—Hogsmeade? Really?
—That's right, although there is no point in going now, probably all the stores are already closed.
—I don't care! I have never been there, so we have to go!
It didn't take long to convince them to go, I was completely excited that I was even skipping every time I walked, I knew that third years and up can visit Hogsmeade, but I can't wait that long, so I wanted to go now.
We went into the passageway, which was a little small (although unlike the boys, I did not have to bend down so that my head did not hit the ceiling) and we started walking, it was a little dark, but they conjured Lumos and we could see where to step thanks to the light that came out of their wands.
We walked for a good time, I even thought it would just be a dead-end passage but then I started seeing a light that didn't come from the wands, it was the moonlight. We came out of an alley that was near the Hogsmeade station, even though it was dark, now I could see everything better, without the nerves of knowing in which house I would be sorted.
—Wow...
—Incredible, right?
The boys took me to see the whole town, although I could only see the stores from the outside because they were all closed that did not take away the emotion. I was in Hogsmeade!
—And this is Zonko, the best store where you can buy things to make jokes. Georgie, remember we should buy more stink bombs next time we come.
—I bet if you open your own store you would be much better.
—That is not a bad idea. —Fred said as he smiled at me and awkwardly tried to grab one of my hands.
—I think we should go. —Lee said, looking at his watch in his left hand.— It's almost 11, it's past the curfew.
We returned through the tunnel through which we arrived, Fred and George were covering the entrance again when in the distance we saw Filch and Mrs. Norris, he was walking quickly towards us, so we started running, regardless if the passageway was covered or not.
As I was still wearing my cloak and it was a bit too big, it was no surprise that I tripped over it, Lee and George kept running towards the common room while Fred helped me to get up and we hid behind one of the statues just in time to see Filch and his cat walk past us.
—As soon as I find out who they are, I will give them their due punishment, Mrs. Norris...
We stayed in hiding for a few minutes after he left and when we heard him yell something at Peeves we knew it was safe to get out.
—Wow, that was close. —I said laughing and trying to catch some air.— We should leave before someone else comes back or finds us, I haven't had detention in a while but I really don't want one.
Luckily the common room was not far, so we arrived in no time. George and Lee were already there, waiting for us.
—Now we can't use that passageway again, clearly, he already knows that it exists so he will be constantly watching over it. For a moment I thought you wouldn't make it, Gred.
—Don't doubt our abilities, Feorge. This was fun, Mini Snape, we should do it again another day.
—Yeah, I had fun too, don't think twice to invite me again when you go to Hogsmeade. See you later guys.
I said goodbye to the three of them and went up to my room, it wasn't that late, maybe around 11:30 but the other girls were already asleep, although I imagined that Hermione would stay awake to find out how many rules I had broken but as obviously I didn't want to wake her up so she couldn't ask me a thousand questions. (That would be Eillen's problem tomorrow) I put on my pajamas as quiet as possible and went to bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
