Bab 8: Chapter 8: Fly
Beta read by Shigiya and DOOMRAIDER.
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-Slytherin dorm-
Today was finally the day where many would live their dream. A feat of magic desired by many readers of the Harry Potter universe and even those who didn't know anything about the book. Something they have been looking forward to learning, more than anything else.
Flying.
Yes, we had our first flying lesson of the year and I couldn't help but fidget at the thought of flying anywhere I wanted without anyone stopping me once again. Yes, again, because this wasn't the first time that I used a broomstick. Both Draco and I once sneakily bought regular flying brooms and flew across the sky to the Muggle world. Due to our inexperience and lack of knowledge on how to fly and how to maneuver correctly, I nearly crashed headfirst into a helicopter. Fortunately, I was saved at the last minute by Draco and decided to venture back to an area where there would be no flying planes or helicopters.
If would be quite pathetic and depressing if either of us were to die by getting hit by a helicopter of all things.
But it was a fun activity.
Some people might argue that the floo powder was better as it instantly teleported someone to their desired location. But this was not about traveling from point A to point B, it was about the experience of it all.
Though I did wonder about one thing…
"How the hell do people mount this thing for hours?" I said while sitting on a broomstick, the thin wood being extremely uncomfortable to my lower part. Even with the charms to increase the rider's confirm on the broom, this feeling wouldn't last for long and would soon get replaced with pain.
"My balls hurt." I never truly got used to this feeling and could never fly for long. At that point, I had garnered a large amount of respect for horseback riders.
"My butt hurts in my case, I can't believe people ride these brooms and play quidditch as well." said Theodore as he tried to find a comfortable way to sit on the broomstick as well. "Those people are definitely wearing some sort of padding under their bums."
"Right? Wait, what if I bring a pillow for my but and attach it with a rope?"
"Not sure about that, if it were so easy then every Quidditch players would be using this method." spoke Blaise, reading the latest 'Daily Prophet' on his bed. "Apparently, some poor fool broke into Gringotts' vault 713 and didn't steal anything. Like, why go through all the hassle if the thief could have easily stolen a few thousand galleons in the process."
Ah, Quirrell and his goal of acquiring the stone led him to break into one of the most secure vaults in Gringotts. This feat alone spoke volumes of his magical prowess and skills. Some would argue that the bank had pathetic forms of security out in place as they allowed an unknown criminal through, but these people didn't understand the length goblins would go through to keep their vaults safe. It wasn't that the bank's security was weak, Quirrell was just a highly skilled wizard who managed to break in with the help of Voldemort most likely.
"Don't speak like that, imagine if the criminal really wanted to steal wealth, then he would have broken into one of OUR vaults."
"You're being too paranoid, Jarius. Who would dare mess with our families' vaults? Much less anything associated with your house."
I shook my head at Theodore's naive way of thinking. Just because we were one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight houses, didn't necessarily keep us safe from being the victim of such ploys.
"You're too naive and dumb, Theodore."
"Say that again and I'll send a curse to your face."
"Will you?"
"No, I heard Draco talk about some of the spells you use… can't say I'm a fan of them. And also because you are scary when angered." he said.
"When did I ever get angry? I'll let you know that I'm a bright and cheerful kind of guy!" I boasted proudly. "Hardly anything phases me!"
"Like that time in the commons room when you released your magic and broke the cups and dimmed the fire?"
Oh right, that one…
"A criminal who bothered to break into the Gringotts and mess with the goblins, wouldn't care about the pureblood houses in the first place. Such scums of society have nothing to fear as they discard their safety for personal gains." Draco muttered scornfully. "And, brother, I don't think the teacher will allow us to bring our pillows for our flying classes… and where did you even find those brooms?"
"Oh, these things? I borrowed them from the house elves."
Everyone gave me a weird look.
"When and how did you get into contact with the house elves of Hogwarts? I heard they answered Dumbledore alone."
"No, they do listen to student's requests as well. When asked nicely, they would accommodate the dietary requests of vegetarian students and even perform minor tasks like getting some snacks and retrieving certain objects like I did. I asked Dobby to put me in contact with some of the castle's staff. I can even ask him to bring me a tennis ball, look." A yellow ball appeared mid-air and landed on my palm. "See?"
"Who's Dobby?" Blaise asked.
I dropped the broom and snapped my fingers.
Woosh!
An explosion of glitter light happened near me and a small creature clothed in a simple untattered green robe and green socks. It was an elf, our Malfoy house's elf to be more precise; Dobby. I knew him since I was a small baby, he took care of us by preparing our food and drinks. He would play the role of a nanny while Narcissa and Lucius were away from the manor. It made me wonder why he was so badly treated if he literally took care of the kids and the entire house. It was so bad that I would regularly hear my parents throw death threats at the elf multiple times in a single day.
Then I remembered, "Oh right, cause he's an elf."
And then I recalled who exactly my father was…
So, I gave Dobby one of my clothes when I was 4 years old. The green robe he was wearing was one of the many other pieces of clothing I gave him. As to not cause any issues with Lucius since I was still not that familiar with his attitude back then, I ordered Dobby to keep this matter a secret and continue his regular services with his old clothes.
Technically, he was set free but decided to remain by my side as he felt the need to repay the gratitude.
I did end up asking by the age of 10 if I could have a house elf of my own. A servant that would follow my orders and no one else's, of course, both parents accepted such a simple request. So, Dobby and I played the game and made it look like he was ordered to serve me and Draco by Lucius's orders.
Only Draco was aware of this fact since he saw the elf's clothes, but we agreed to keep this matter between ourselves. Why would he reveal everything to Lucius when both of us had our own servant? He benefited from the situation as much as me and he wasn't dumb enough to ruin it.
"Greetings, master Jarius and master Draco! How may Dobby be of service?"
"Hey there Dobby, how has your time in Hogwarts been?" I asked the small guy.
"Wonderful! Dobby gets to meet new people and help others around, he hears things for master, he is a house-elf, he goes all over the castle as he lights the fires, mops the floors and gathers information."
"Lucky!" Exclaimed Blaise, "You even got to bring your elf in Hogwarts! I didn't know you could do that."
"You can't."
Well, it wasn't allowed in the first place. Hogwarts had some very strict rules about many things. Few of which consisted of not being able to apparate, students below the age of 17 were constantly tracked with Trace and fly without permission or outside the Quidditch field. But we weren't breaking the rules by bringing Dobby with us, he was a free elf and not our servant. So technically, Dobby's presence here was of his choice alone and had nothing to do with us—thus not breaking any school rules. Granted, Lucius did also ask for permission and asked Snape for a leeway as in his eyes Dobby was still a servant to the Malfoys.
Back on topic.
"Bring these brooms back." I handed the elf the brooms and watched him vanish with items in a blink of an eye. " It's nearly time, we need to hurry up to the fields. According to our timetable, we'll have joint classes with the Gryffindor, again." At that point, everyone in the room but me groaned in annoyance.
"Ah come one, what's so bad about them for you all to react like that."
"Are you kidding!?" shouted Blaise. "One of our own got pranked by the Weasley twins with accidentally using a frog spawn soap in the showers! I heard that Pansy was traumatised from using soap for the next few days and stank like hell!"
"I heard she was glued to the toilet seat this morning and the bloody thing exploded! Had to call Miss Pomfrey in there as Pansy couldn't walk around the castle with that stuck to her bum."
We all laughed at that image. I guess the twins really went above and beyond my expectations.
"Oh no, anyways; we need to go. Before we leave, Draco, did mother send us anything today?" Aside from being a loving mother who had a keen interest in spoiling us the most, she was also a worrywart. Nearly everyday, we would get a letter from her and sweets. She would ask how we were doing and demand a response the very same day.
"No, I wrote to her that she needs to calm down and wait till the weekend because we are too busy with schoolwork and she was stressing us out with her constant contact." Nice, playing on her motherly emotions, as expected from my brother.
I grabbed an old vintage camera—at least in my eyes it was old—and called everyone. "As to not accidentally make her go down in a depressive state and cry so much that father will need to intervene; let's send her a picture of us roommates!"
"No thanks, I'm good." Blaise said.
"I'm not good with pictures… and I find your father scary and don't want him to have a picture of me." Denied Theodore.
"No," as shy as always my brother.
"Well too bad. Dobby! Tie these three up!"
In the next moment, all three of the kids got taken hold of by magical force on them and forcefully huddled them into a group.
"Jarius!"
"Let me go you damn elf!"
"I'm telling mother!"
I just ignored the three and placed myself in the front with a big smile on my face. Dobby with the camera who I gave the signal to take the shot.
"Say cheese!"
"Curse you!"
"You'll pay for this!"
"Wait! I'm not wearing my trousers, damn it!"
Flash!
{Break}
When we reached the field, everyone was already there. Including the Slytherin girls, what was even funnier was Pansy trying to be invisible, standing at the very back and surprisingly… also carrying a pillow in her hand. Guess that glue must have been more painful than I anticipated. Every girl from the Slytherin side was trying their best to not burst into a fit of laughter. If it was the Hufflepuff house then everyone would have been around her, trying to ease her worry and console the poor girl. Too bad for her that this was the Slytherin House and she wouldn't have done the same for anyone else.
I joined the others and heard people talking about their own experiences with flying.
Seamus Finnigan recounted how he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider—everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Draco and Blaise joined the conversation, talking about their favourite team and players. Some talked about how they wished to buy the latest Nimbus 2000; which I believed would make an appearance soon.
Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, I felt that she had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground—one could imagine the number of accidents if the kid tried to fly. The same applied to Hermione, but it stemmed from the fact she came from a Muggle family and never got the opportunity to try it.
I could see she was just as nervous as Neville, both of them kept staring at their broom with trepidation and wariness.
Sophie Roper, a Slytherin, was in the same boat as them. I knew close to nothing about her but since she existed then I guess the girl was a minor background character in the books.
Wasn't this the scene when Neville broke his arm by losing control of his broom? It might have been because of his nerves combined with the stress of forgetting something according to that crystal ball; Remembrall.
"Draco," I called out to my brother.
"What?"
"Did you try to snatch that ball?"
He gave me a confused look, "Now why would I do that? You already bought me one for my 9th birthday, remember?"
Ah, so another change in this reality. I had honestly forgotten about that and I chose the Remembrall when Narcissa went shopping with me.
"Hey, Neville… where is your coat?" The moment I said that, the crystal in his hand turned from red to green.
"Oh no!"
He ran back inside the school, followed by Ron and Harry. That was a good thing, at least I knew of its effects and how they worked in detail now. Me telling him didn't change anything much. In the show, someone must have told him the same thing as he had the coat with him.
A few minutes later our class had started, everyone was present and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. These things were worse than I expected. Even with just a quick look, I could tell that they weren't the best of quality and old. Sufficient for learning to fly, but not ideal to use in a match like quidditch. Like seriously, it was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.
The trio came back at the last second running with Neville wearing his school coat.
Our teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. One could mistake her for a mad scientist with that hairstyle.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone, stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."
"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say; up!"
"UP!" everyone shouted.
My broom and Draco's jumped into our hands at once, we practiced this before and it was a piece of cake—but we were one of the few that did. Hermione's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid. Or, another most likely explanation was that their voices didn't carry enough will and certaintude. They needed to believe that the spell will work and not just say the world and be unsure whether it will work or not.
"Up! Come on, Up!" Hermione was getting more frustrated by the second.
"Need any help?"
"No thank you, I've read about this from the first year books. I just need to get in control of my emotions and not get so riled up." she took a deep breath and said, "Up!"
The broom levitated to her hands immediately, she wobbled a bit with the sudden force but steadied herself quickly. She gave me a smug grin while I then returned by congratulating her, even some of the girls praised her as well. Guess they no longer cared about Pansy's meddling.
Madam Hooch then showed us how to mount our brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting the student's grips.
"Mister Malfoy," she stopped when she saw me wrap a pillow around my broom. "What are you doing?"
"Protecting my lineage."
"Excuse me?" she frowned and looked at Pansy. "And the young miss over there, are you also going to give me the same reason?"
"N-No!" Pansy stuttered. "I got pranked by those Weasley twins and can't… sit." Even though she had been mostly healed, her butt was still sensitive.
Madam Hooch just rolled her eyes and ignored us.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," she said. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle, three, two…"
But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.
Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was long gone having ascended more than ten meters in the air. He wasn't getting down at all and was definitely going to fall and break his arm like in canon… I could use this.
"Draco, wanna play a game?" We grew up together, I didn't need to explain to him what I was planning on doing; he knew.
Hermione heard me talking to him, "What are you two doing? This is an emergency, we need to bring him down before he hurts himself!"
"Oh, don't worry…"
"We have a plan." Finished Draco.
Bringing my pillowed broomstick, both me and Draco flew to the sky—much to Madam Hooch's dismay.
"Where are you two brothers going!?"
"Making sure someone doesn't break his bones!"
We ignored her. Blood was pounding in my ears. I soared upwards; air rushed through his hair, and my robes whipped out behind my back and in a rush of fierce joy, I felt once again the feeling of freedom burst within me! This was easy, this was wonderful and nothing could beat this experience… aside from riding a gryphon or dragon one day. He really envied any avian creature who would experience such a thing daily and do it for hours and even days for some.
Flying up to Neville, I stopped in front of the frightened kid. He continued to ascend higher while trying to remain stable on the broom.
"Hey there!" I saluted him. "Nice weather we have today."
"H-Help me!" He extended his hands, thinking that I would grab them.
"Sorry, but we have other plans…"
"W-we?"
Whoosh!
Immediately, a shadow passed by him at great speed, nearly making the boy fall off his broom. I heard the other kids below gasp as they saw Draco appear behind me, holding a particular crystal ball in his hand.
"Would you look at this, brother. We got ourselves a new souvenir from the Gryffindors."
"T-that's mine!"
I grabbed the Remembrall, "Oh? Quite a nice thing you got here." I played with the small orb and kept throwing it in the air and catching it with my palm. "These things are quite valuable and fragile… would be a shame if it were to fall." I passed it back to Draco.
"I don't know about that, I've been meaning to have one for myself." He slowly brought it to his pockets and stopped. "Oh? You want it?" Bringing it close to the boy, he showed the item and when Neville tried to grab it; Draco retracted his hands. "Then you'll have to get it."
"G-give it b-back! My Gran gave it to me!" Unbeknownst to him, we both saw how he stopped ascending any further.
"It would seem like your Gran will have to buy a new one instead. After all, look, I'm handing it to you right here; just come and take it yourself." he showed the Remembrall to the boy who slowly began approaching Draco.
Surprisingly, Madam Hooch didn't come for our asses yet, maybe she realized what we were doing? Maybe.
"Nope!" Draco once again backed away from his broom when Neville was about to reach the orb. "Did you honestly think it would be so easy? As expected from a Gryffindor, not much in the head and filled with false bravery."
"Watch out!" shouted Hermione from below.
"—!"
Her warning was heard in time and Draco dodged just in time to evade another broom fly by which was about to snatch the orb; it was Harry Potter himself.
"Give it back here you two! That's an important gift to Neville!"
Wow, someone was angry.
I gestured for Draco to pass the item to me; which he did. "This? Why bother? This ain't yours as far as I know, Potter. It's for Neville here and only he can get it!"
"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"
"Woah! Attempted murder on someone who helped you back in potion class? What a Slytherin way of thinking." At my comment, the boy suddenly stilled and became perturbed.
"N-No! I-I didn't mean—"
"—Mean what? A fall of this height might as well end in death." Watching him grow increasingly more agitated and pale was funny. "Though I think you missed something, Potter."
"W-what?"
I looked at Neville, "You want your crystal orb back, right? Then catch it." A circular object dropped from my hand and was falling to the ground."
"No!" Nevilled panicked and in a shocking display of skill, charged downwards at full speed. He caught it a few meters off the ground and narrowly avoided crashing but still couldn't quite stick the landing and fell from his broom and rolled a few times on the grass.
He was panting heavily, not believing what he had just done.
"Congratulations, Mister Longbottom. You managed to display a fine skill of manoeuvrability, though you still need a bit of work in your landing. 5 points to Gryffindor." Madam Hooch said as she examined the boy for any traces of injuries. "Those two Malfoy brothers really have quite the guts to do such a thing in front of a teacher. Minus 10 points from Slytherin, but they did teach and save another student… so I'll grant them 5 points. Anyways, we need to bring you to the infirmary to do some minor checkups."
"Wait!" Neville shouted. "This isn't my Remembrall!" Indeed, what I threw wasn't the crystal ball, but a round yellow tennis ball.
I looked back at Harry, showing him the real Remembrall. "Since I really want to face you in quidditch and beat your group at their best… I'll let you become a seeker. I'll follow canon and help you just this once. But after this, you'll be on your own. You've already lost your smartest member and would have lost your Quidditch position as well if it weren't for this. So appreciate this gesture Potter—because there won't be anymore afterwards."
He looked at me weirdly.
"What are you talking about? I didn't understand a single thing you said."
I just grinned and whined up my arm, making the boy's eyes widen.
"Nothing, just crazy talk of a topic you would never understand. Catch!" Just like Draco did in the movies, I threw the Remembrall as hard as I could towards the window of the office where McGonagall was working.
I watched the boy speed up and perform the same moves and have the kids below congratulate him. Madam Hooch was already taking Neville to the infirmary and signaled us to wait; most likely to give us a scolding after she returned.
Hermione waited below with her arms crossed and a blank expression.
"That was incredibly stupid."
"I know," I said while getting off my broom and massaging my butt. "But it worked, didn't it? Neville will be able to use a broom without fear next time and Potter got himself an opportunity." I pointed at McGonagall coming outside and called him inside.
"Just don't be so reckless next time, okay?"
"No promises, things are bound to get more… chaotic from now on."
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 2 Fate fics are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter.
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