SuperPotterLock- The Philosopher's Stone

The Midnight Duel

John watched the rivalry grow between Harry and Draco Malfoy. Sherlock found the whole thing highly amusing and Malfoy ridiculous. John had to agree with him on that but couldn't help but feel that Malfoy's harmless teasing might turn in to something more sinister. One morning, they all got a notice, saying that Gryffindor would have a flying lesson with the Slytherins on Thursday afternoon.

'That's just what I needed; to make a fool out of myself in front of Malfoy. He already knows how to fly,' moaned Harry.

'He's all talk. I bet you anything that he doesn't know the handle from the tail,' said Ron confidently.

Quidditch, as it happened, was a source of great debate among the wizarding community. As in football, there were many different teams and nearly everyone supported one or the other. Ron had already had a heated argument with Dean Thomas, who they shared their dormitory with, about football. Ron couldn't see the point of a sport with only one ball and where no one was allowed to fly. Dean, however, disagreed and pointedly carried on putting up a poster of the West Ham football team, that Harry later caught Ron prodding, trying to make the players move. John privately agreed with Dean, as he himself followed football and even had an Arsenal FC scarf stashed in his trunk.

They made their way down to breakfast on Thursday morning, accompanied by a terrified Neville, who had never been allowed on a broom due to his chronic clumsiness, and Hermione, who was muttering flying tips nervously under her breath. Flying was not something you could learn from books, although she had tried incredibly hard to do so. Exasperatedly, they parked themselves at the Gryffindor table and helped themselves to toast and cereal, while trying to ignore the constant stream of unnerving facts and figures coming from Hermione. John glanced over at the Ravenclaw table, where Sherlock was taking a sip from his goblet and Castiel was looking around nervously. Sherlock finished his drink and stood up. He smoothed out the wrinkles in his robes and, much to John's surprise, strode over and sat next to John. All the students, except the Gryffindors, fell silent and turned to stare at him cross the room. John gaped, open mouthed, at him. This didn't seem to faze him at all and he grabbed a slice of toast, spreading a large amount of marmalade on it. Eventually everyone turned back to their breakfasts and gossiped with each other.

'Sherlock, what are you doing?' John said.

'Eating toast.'

John raised his eyebrows.

'The conversation is becoming so unbearably dull, especially with Mycroft sticking his beak in. It's much more interesting over here, where I can hear everything,' he explained.

Meanwhile, Castiel was getting many suspicious looks from his fellow Ravenclaws, so he abandoned his half-eaten banana and scuttled over to sit on Sherlock's other side. Most of the Gryffindors during all of this had not batted an eyelid at being joined by two Ravenclaw first-years, and one boy, sitting near the Weasley twins, had even looked up and grinned welcomingly before going back to his pie. Hermione didn't seem to have noticed them and was still lecturing those closest to her on wind speeds and directional changes on certain brands of broom. Fortunately she was interrupted by the morning post. The flurry of owls swopped in and Sherlock felt Castiel flinch violently beside him. Sherlock was hoping that, for Castiel's sake, that there were no explosive letters today, as he knew how much he was looking forward to their flying lesson that morning, although he knew that the chances of that were slim. The Ravenclaws had their flying lesson with the Hufflepuffs after breakfast. Castiel watched anxiously as an owl flapped in their direction. It turned out to be a package for Neville, which it dropped in his lap. He opened the letter attached to it excitedly.