บท 71: Chapter 71
Alex ate his dinner silently, paying little attention to Aman's incessant chatter about Ravenclaw's unbroken streak of six Quidditch victories. Instead, his mind wandered to the possibilities that lay ahead in his future.
'Engaging in Quidditch could be a good way to distract myself,' he thought, 'Becoming a seeker would be the obvious choice if I consider this year's sin, but it seems extremely boring. On the other hand… chasers require teamwork and offer a great deal of enjoyment but again, too much work. As for the goalkeeper position, that seems to be out of the question.'
He glanced at his friend before forcefully stabbing at the fruits in his bowl, 'That leaves the beater role as a viable option... the notion of knocking opponents off their brooms is undeniably exhilarating. So, I'll try out for either the chaser or beater position in the team. Once the team is formed, we can strategize on how to triumph over the more experienced seniors.'
As he leisurely consumed his meal, Alex's thoughts also turned to Neville's lessons for the rest of the year. By the time he had mentally organized his thoughts and wrote them all down on a parchment, nearly half of the Great Hall was empty.
Scanning the room, he located Neville amidst the gathering of Gryffindors at their table. He stood up from his table and headed over to the Gryffindor table all the while ignoring Aman's outburst behind him.
He handed the parchment to Neville while Hermione leaned in closer, ignoring the book on the table as she did, "Is this the thing you were talking about earlier?" she asked as she nudged Neville with her elbow.
Neville nodded, his attention already focused on the parchment which had a lot of indescribable scribbles but he still understood some of the words in it.
"A timetable?" he questioned as he turned to look at Alex who was standing right behind him and pulled a chair for him to sit on.
Alex nodded as he took a seat beside him and glanced at Hermione before continuing, "Yes. I will teach you the stuff you want but it is an undeniable fact that it won't be too effective alone. You will have to practice and learn even when we aren't doing the special classes."
Neville understood what he meant and looked at Hermione who nodded in understanding and looked at Alex, "Neville told me about this weird training plan so that he can become a great wizard and what not. The only reason I agreed to it is because I've seen him work hard for months. If I find your teachings ineffective, I'll stop helping you guys and I'll also do my best to stop Neville from wasting his time with you."
Alex smiled knowingly, "Okay. This means that you will join our sessions once every week where I will teach you a little if you want, but most of it will be instructions for you on what to teach Neville until the next session since you are already pretty good at magic. Got it?"
Hermione nodded in understanding as she closed the book that was on her table and puffed up her non-existent chest, "I'll do my best to help Neville achieve excellence in exams."
Raising his left eyebrow, he gave Neville a questioning look to which he smiled sheepishly in return.
"Alright then, now that this is done… I'll head to bed.", he said as he stood up from his seat and turned around, only to bump into a short redhead.
"Hey Ginny, nice to meet you again. How's your experience here at Hogwarts?"
Ginny took a step back and looked at him for a second before nodding, "It's better than what I expected… Fred told me some really disturbing things such as snakes crawling all over you when you're asleep…"
"Hahahaha… Why would you even trust them? Anyways, I'll get going. See ya." Alex said as took a step forward towards the Ravenclaw table, only to stop when he saw Aman and his sister Jane running towards him with a large steel cage in her hand.
"Oy Alex, help me!" Aman said as he stood behind Alex, using him as a wall to hide himself ineffectively.
Alex looked at Jane who seemed to be frowning as she slowed down and walked over towards him.
"…. Can you tell me what happened?" he asked the girl in front of him while all the nearby Gryffindors turned their attention towards the area where they smelled drama.
Jane placed a small cage on the table and crossed her arms, "My dear older brother cried about not getting a gift for his birthday a few days ago and now that I've spent all my savings to buy him one, he rejects it saying that he won't accept gifts from a Gryffindor. He then continued talking garbage about the honour of goalkeepers."
Alex didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he heard her. He sat back down on his stool, exposing his friend and said, "Mate, if you don't take this gift from your sister, you will not get one from me either. Pick your choice."
Aman's gaze shifted between his sister and Alex for a few seconds before he sighed defeatedly, "I wanted a Raven… why a parrot? It's not even fully grown! Look at his size, he'll easily fit in my mouth."
"Aman, take one get one free. This is an offer that will expire in three seconds. One…. Two…."
Aman's eyes widened as he stared at Alex who seemed to be enjoying his suffering.
"Thr-"
"Fine! My dear lovey sister, I'll take it. I'll take it!" he said as he lifted the cage from the table and looked inside.
A small parrot with bright yellow and green feathers stared back at him for a few seconds before it opened its beak wide seemingly asking for food.
He was about to sigh but Hermione interrupted him, "Bringing a parrot into school is not allowed. In our first year, we all received a letter which stated that only Owls, toads and cats are allowed."
"YES! You're a genius Hermione! You totally deserve to be the top student of you year. HA! Take that, both of you."
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