บท 47: Quidditch Obsession
"Penelope." He called out to the older girl who dropped the old book with a frustrated sigh. Hermione knew from her long experience as a bookworm that this is what a student usually with when he/she found a topic too hard to understand.
"What is it?" the older girl asked in a defeated tone and Hermione noticed her dark lines under her eyes and realized that she probably looked the same.
Harry was a really good teacher and the subjects that he taught were always very interesting, if you could ignore their illegal aspect. On top of that, he often gave her books that even professors like Mcgonagall, Flitwick and Snape didn't have the access to so it was a given that she would study till late at night.
Which was the reason behind her own exhaustion and she could guess that Penelope was in the same page as her.
"We're taking a break." He said and Hermione felt the earth shift away from under her.
"Who are you and what have you done with Harry?" she asked, half jokingly because another half of her was still shocked with the fact that Harry would want to take a break.
The only time she had ever seen him take a break was when he took her to the lake and even then, it turned into their first occlumency lesson rather than a break so in essence, this was truly the first time she had ever seen him talk about a break.
And wasn't that a surreal thought.
That she had never seen him take a break before.
No wonder he was such a genius.
"I stuffed the real Harry Potter in a trunk and took some of his hair so that I could use it for Polyjuice" he said and chuckled at some joke that neither she, nor Penelope understood.
"But seriously. You two have been working rather hard for some time now and I want you to take a break. So we're going back to the lake in order to cool our brains for higher efficiency in the future."
Hermione wanted to argue with him and ask him to give her the next exercise so that she could start practicing with it but if she had learned anything about Harry overtime as his friend, it was that he was a very stubborn and a very decisive person and changing his decisions took a great deal of time and energy and most of the time, it was just best for all of them to go along with his plans.
Penelope must have learned this lesson as well as she grudgingly stood up from her seat and started packing up her books.
Then Harry bent down and took out three brooms from under his desk. Brooms that looked far better than the ones used the school for teaching new students.
Not to mention that those brooms looked rather expensive as well. And the fact that two of those brooms were still gift wrapped.
She remembered seeing one such broom in the shop that sold Quidditch supplies store and wondered how much they cost.
She knew that Harry was rich, he always reminded her of that fact when he wanted to give her something and she didn't wanted to accept it. But she never knew how 'rich' exactly he was.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud squeal as Penelope came running from the other side of the room and wrapped Harry in a tight hug for a second before she left him and took one of the broomstick from his hand.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god Harry." She squealed in excitement as she held the broomstick with reverence. "This is a Nimbus 2000 broomstick. One of the best brooms in the world right now. Even the professional level quidditch teams use this broomstick." Then she went silent as a grave and looked at Harry with no small amount of apprehension "This is for me, right?"
Harry chuckled at her before nodding his head and Penelope squealed once more before crushing him in a hug.
Safe to say, it took a while for her to finally settle down.
Hermione on the other hard was even more apprehensive than her.
"I didn't knew you were a quidditch fan." She commented as she checked her own broom for any cracks or what not. She never really trusted flying all that much after that accident in their first class when Neville broke his arm.
"Are you kidding me." Penelope said, her voice a few octaves higher than usual indicating that the excitement was still there. Just suppressed for now. "I'm one of the biggest fan of the game in the whole school. And I'll have you know that I've never, ever, missed a quidditch game no matter what."
Harry gave her a look that said 'Really. Don't you have anything better to do with your time?' kind of look and Penelope flushed at that.
"It's my hobby. And we're all entitled to have a hobby you know."
Hermione and Harry both gave her a look that clearly said that they didn't believe her for a second.
After all, there was a huge difference between a hobby and an obsession.
And for some strange reason that Hermione was never able to understand, wizards and witches were highly obsessed with the game.
"Enough dilly dallying. Let's go." Harry said and pushed both of them out of the room before locking it and leading them to the opposite direction of the shortcut to the school gate.
"Where are we going Harry?" Hermione asked, not liking the fact that she was not informed about something.
"To the Astronomy tower." Harry said and looked at his… was that a watch. Since when did he bought one. "There no one in the tower right now." He informed and she realized that it was not a watch but had something to do with the marauder's map. A device that tracked the whereabouts of everyone in the castle.
And wasn't that a scary thought.
Just like Harry had said, the Astronomy tower was totally empty and it took Hermione some time to understand why they were here and what they were going to do now and she froze.
She did not like heights.
She did not like flying.
She might have fought both her fears for Harry but this was too much for her.
"Harry." She squeaked and realized that her voice was too soft for anyone to hear.
"Harry." She said a bit louder this time and he turned to look back at her and a look of understanding crossed his face. She wondered if he had known about her fear of flying. Had she told him about that?
He turned and whispered something to Penelope who nodded and instantly jumped off from the Tower with her broom under her legs before he turned to her with an understanding smile.
"I know you don't like flying very much. So thanks for doing this for me." He said and took her broom before stowing it away in his expendable purse which she eyed with no small amount of envy.
He chuckled at her expression and told to come closer. "You'll ride with me today." He said softly and she felt her face flush at his words.
"Come" he said and positioned the broom between his legs in a flying position.
She eyed the broom with some apprehension and a bit of fear before she gathered up the courage and sat on it in front of her. Hoping that she would still be in one piece by the end of the day.
As she sat on the broom, she felt like she was sitting on a soft cushion and not a thin branch. Probably some kind of charm that she didn't knew about.
Her back was to his chest as he put his arms around her securely while holding the broom. "I'll keep you safe princess." He whispered in her ears and she flushed once again.
He was such a tease.
But before she could reply to that, he pushed from the ground and at the very next moment, they were falling from the tower and her breath was caught in the throat as the ground came closer and closer but then Harry took control and turned the broom toward the direction of the lake.
And they flew.
It would remain as one of the best days of her life for many years to come.
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