Chapter 5

Time skip
September 24th, 1991

Harry was currently in a detention with Argus Filch, the caretaker of the castle. He was polishing some of the trophies in the trophy room. He was a regular presence in that room for past 2 weeks, for Harry had been given detention. He was help Argus Filch for 2 weeks. And the reason. For flying a broom.

It was the first flying class. All the first years had assembled in the quidditch pitch. They were made to stand beside a broom. Madam Hooch came and told them, "Class, today is your first flying lesson. I am Professor Hooch and I will teach all of you how to fly a magical broom. All of you will follow my instructions carefully. Anything other than that and you will not be allowed to fly again and will not attend the flying classes. Is that clear?" Everyone nodded their head. Madam Hooch then said, "Ok. Now, everyone, stand to the right side of the broom. Before learning how to fly a broom, you need to understand something." Taking one of the brooms in her hand, she said, "Before trying to fly on any broom, you need to understand how the broom works. Each type of broom is unique. A Nimbus will only need the slightest of touch to move. A Comet may require lot more force to move. Whenever you start to fly on a new broom, try to understand how it works. Take time to understand it. Otherwise, the results will not be good for you. Flying without caution is not something you should ever do. Am I Clear?" The students nodded their heads.

"Good. Now, keep your hand above the broom. In your mind, imagine the broom coming towards your hand. Then say, "Up". Is that clear?" Everyone again nodded and did as Madam Hooch said. A collective shout of up came from all of them. To Harry's surprise, his broom came to his hand at the first try. Draco also had gotten his broom on the first try as well, but that was because he was used to flying brooms. Seeing Potter get the broom up so early, that too on his first try, sparked a feeling of jealous and anger in him. He decided to frame Potter by the end of the lesson.

Soon, nearly everyone got their broom in their hand. After this, Madam Hooch again said, "Good. Now that everyone has their broom come to their hand, mount it. After you mount your broom, gently push your feet so that you can take off slowly and levitate just above the ground. Remember, push your feet gently. More force you apply higher your broom will go." Once again, Harry was surprised that he was once again able to do it without any trouble. He was slowly levitating above the ground. He was enjoying this. He looked at others. He saw Neville having some trouble with his broom. He told this to Madam Hooch. Suddenly. Neville's broom went out of his control and begin rising upwards quickly. He tried to push the broom down to come back to ground. But instead of coming down, the broom moved forwards. The broom was by now completely out of Neville's control. He crashed in the wall in front of him and fell down. He had broken his left arm. Madam Hooch flew near him and gently took his arm in his hands. She said, "You have completely broken your arm Mr. Longbottom. I will take you to the hospital wing. Don't worry, Madam Pomfrey will heal it in an instant. Everyone else, stay on the ground till I come." Madam Hooch then took Neville to Hospital wing.

Draco had seen something fall from Neville's robes. He went and took the thing. It was rememberball. He looked at his friends and said, "Looks like Longbottom lost his rememberball." He then looked at Harry and said, "Since it was you who saw Longbottom's failed stunt first, why don't you decide what to do with it? Here Potter, catch." Malfoy purposefully said that and threw it way above Harry's had and said, "Oops. Must have slipped my hand." Harry knew that if the rememberball fell on the ground and broke, he would be blamed for it since Malfoy had so clearly said that it was Harry's idea. He also knew that he wouldn't be able to catch it by running. He quickly took off on his broom and tilted his broom to fly towards the ball. He didn't know what he was doing. He was doing all of it off his instincts, trusting them and hoping they would work. He quickly flew towards the ball and caught it. But Madam Hooch came outside at that moment. Seeing Harry in air flying at such speed, she angrily said, "Mr. Potter. Despite my warning you flew your broom. Not only that, but you were flying at a very high speed. You have disobeyed my order. Detention for 2 weeks with Mr. Filch. You will also no longer attend the flying lessons since you refuse to listen to my instructions. Keep the broom down and go back to your dorm." Harry flew down and quietly went inside the castle. He had expected that this would have happened anyways. It had already happened so many times with him in his primary school that he used to expect such things to happen to him. Then, it used to be Dudley. Now it was Malfoy.

Harry didn't understand why was Draco so hell bent on making his life miserable. He also didn't understand what was it that made so many distrust him. He was just a regular boy, wasn't he? Was he different from others? Was he truly a freak like his aunt and uncle told him? Was he not normal even here? Why was he like that? Why did everything happen to him? Could he never have anything good happen to him? Harry didn't have answers to any of this. But someday, he would find them. He made himself this promise. What he didn't knew was that he was going to get his answers in the near future.

There were two reasons as to why Draco was behaving like this. The first reason was very simple. It was because he was jealous of Harry. Everyone in Slytherin house spoke of him. Everyone in other 3 houses spoke of him. It was as if he was the only Slytherin in the whole castle. Everywhere he went, he heard about Potter. Every single person in Hogwarts was always talking about Potter. He had also seen how Harry did very well in his classes. He even scored more than him in Transfiguration and DADA. This didn't sit well with Draco. He couldn't digest the fact that Harry, who was practically a muggleborn, did better than him in some classes. It was already disgusting to him that another mudblood, Hermione Granger was at the top of their class. The second reason was how much his father had made him out to be this great and powerful wizard. Till now, he had not seen any sign for such power. He thought that Potter was a fraud and was doing all of this to discredit him and defame him. He wanted everyone to realize that Potter was a nobody in front of Draco Malfoy.

Harry's mind came out of this flashback when he heard Filch say, "That enough Potter. Your detention is over. Too bad you won't come here anymore. It was great having some extra hands." Harry quickly left. When he came outside the room, he found Neville standing there. If there was anything good that came out of that incident, it was that Neville had become his friend. His first and only friend.

He had gone to meet Neville in the hospital wing to give his rememberball back to him. When he had given the ball to Neville, Neville shyly said, "Thanks Harry. I forgot to bring this. Thanks for giving this back. But why did you come now? Is the lesson" Harry was surprised at the thanks. It was the first time when someone had thanked him for doing anything. Harry said, "It wasn't a problem, Neville. Madam Hooch banned me from attending the classes. Since I had got the ball, I thought to hand it back to you." Neville seemed shocked at this and said, "Why did madam hooch ban you from flying? You were flying nicely. It should have been me who should have been banned if anyone had to be." Harry then retold the tale. Neville listened to all this and then said, "Malfoy. I should have known it. Only he would do things like this." Harry asked him, "What do you mean by that? Why is Draco so intent on getting me into trouble?" Neville seemed surprised at Harry's question and said, "You don't know?" Harry shook his head. Neville then said, "You are one of the most famous wizards Harry. You are the Boy-Who-Lived." Harry didn't get what Neville meant. Neville understood this from Harry's confused face.

He proceeded to tell Harry about his fame and story. He said, "10 years ago, there was a very powerful dark wizard. He wanted only the purebloods to learn magic, believing that the muggleborn stole it from deserving purebloods. He was supported by many pure-blooded families like the Malfoys, the Parkinson's and many others. He started recruiting people to his cause and killed anyone who opposed him. Tales of his power and his cause spread. People were so scared of him that they began calling him You-Know-Who. There was only one wizard who people believed Voldemort was afraid of. That wizard was Albus Dumbledore. On Halloween of 1981, he attacked your house. Your parents, James and Lily, were one of most popular light family. They were against him and his cause. He killed your parents and was going to kill you as well. No one knows why or how but you survived his killing curse, even though you were just a baby. No one had ever survived a killing curse before. Voldemort died on that day and ever since, you are known in the magical world as the Boy-Who-Lived. You are very famous wizard and a hero to many. But the fact that you are in Slytherin, the house known for producing dark wizards, which has a reputation for having wizards who support blood supremacy, scares many because they simply believe that you are very powerful as you defeated one of the strongest wizards as a baby. They fear you are the next dark lord, for many believe even Voldemort was from Slytherin."

After hearing all this, Harry said nothing. A lot of info had been dumped on him and his brain was taking time accepting it. He didn't know what to think. He was treated like this because of something he had done as a baby and his house. Did these people even know that he grew as a muggle and didn't even know about before his 11th birthday? Did these people even know that Harry had no idea about Hogwarts or its houses or the prejudice against the houses? How was he to know that Slytherin was known for producing dark wizards? The hat had told him that he was ambitious and cunning and had wit and loyalty. Harry was brought out of his thought by Neville. He said, "It's getting near curfew. You should go Harry. Thanks for bringing this back to me. Friends?" Neville extended his hand. For the first time, some had asked Harry to be their friend. He shyly took Neville's hand and said, "Friends." He then left for his dorm.

Unknown to both the boys, Madam Pomfrey had seen this entire exchange between the two boys. She had been surprised seeing how little Harry knew about the wizarding world. The boy also looked very short and underdeveloped for his age. But that was not the only thing that worried her. She had seen how dejected he was and how lonely and isolated he was. She had seen how surprised Harry was when Neville was telling him about his story. She saw the pain in his eyes when Neville told him about his parent's death. But the thing that shook her the most was the look of absolute wonder when Neville told him his parent's names were James and Lily. What had this kid gone through? How could he not even know his parents name in these 11 years?

She had wanted to call him to her office right then. She wanted to but didn't, feeling that would just scare the boy more. She suspected that none of his experience with adults had been good. She didn't want to take away this small happiness Harry had just got. But throughout the next 2 weeks, she quietly observed both Harry and Neville. Her focus was more on Harry. Neville, despite being insecure and reclusive like Harry, had some friends in the Gryffindor house. Harry didn't. He was severely underdeveloped for his age. He was shorter than many of his classmates. His body was very lean and frail. The glasses too looked very old and she knew that they were not set for his eyes. She had seen how Harry tried to cover his arms. She felt that there were going to be marks on his arms. He was also very reclusive and he tended to stay in the shadows and away from the spotlight. Interacting with no one. His Slytherin mates didn't interact with him other than to taunt him. Malfoy and his gang even bullied him. The students from other houses didn't interact with him. She decided to call him for a check-up the next day.