Light in the Dark

Halloween

~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ Chapter 7 ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~

September bled into October, the classes began picking up in speed and skill level. Harry was enjoying them, his friends helping to make it fun and having their daily study and homework groups helped them all learn and get homework done on time. After the third week of school, Severus, Pomona and Filius had basically stopped needing to give permission to the mixed group of friends to study in the common rooms. When that particular group went missing, they were normally in either the library, great hall, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw's common room.

Harry has tried to make friends with some Gryffindors and he did for the most part, but the one time he tried to study with his Lion friends in the Gryffindor common room, Ron Weasley kept harassing him. After that, he refused to come back to the Lion's Den which upset the Lions who enjoyed having Harry there! Not everything was sunshine and rainbows, there were bullies and people who were of like minded to Ron that Harry was a traitor, some even went as far as to tell him that his parents would be ashamed of him for going into the house of their murderer. Harry knew it wasn't true, but because he heard it so much and not to mention some of the physical bullying, he was starting to withdraw into himself again. That got Tom and Draco, who were his oldest friends and defenders, very pissed.

Harry wasn't the only one being bullied either, Neville was mocked and pushed around while girls went out of their way to make fun of Hermione. Severus has dished out so much detention and took away so many points, all four houses were barely out of the double digits! Oh when Severus learned some of his snakes were bullying students, not just housemates, he punished them twice as bad. Everyone sensed all of this was going to come to a head and whether this would make or break the dam of tension, no one could tell...

~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~ *~* ~

Flying lessons had started for the first years and so far everything was going well. Some of the brooms listened to the students on the first go, a few rolled about, clearly too old to be in use, but for whatever reason they have not been replaced. Everyone got to enjoy Weasley getting smacked in the face by his broom, when he called it a stupid hunk of wood and straw. Apparently the broom had a minor sense of self and took exception to the insult. Madam Hooch was like a Drill Sergeant, she barked instructions, though she softened her tone when she was helping a student. He could understand the extra sternness, flying was deadly, one miss hap and broken bones was the least of your worries, a broken neck on the other hand?

"Alright, now that we are all properly mounted, when I blow my whistle, I want you all to kick up from the ground, a small hop will do, hover for a moment and lean gently forward to come back down. On my count!" She instructed.

Everyone braced themselves, but Neville had a moment of panic and kicked off too soon, Madam Hooch tried to talk him back down, but the broom seemed to have a mind of its own and took him for a joyride. He was being whipped around and that terrified the poor boy more. Suddenly he slammed into the castle wall and fell off. Almost everyone went from laughing at him to screaming. Madam Hooch barely screeched when something shot passed her and she gasped seeing Harry flying towards the falling boy.

"Mr. Potter get back here!!" She yelled, half running and half trying to jump on her own broom to save the child.

Harry ignored her and following instincts, barrel rolled, while performing a hard drift, to bank along the stones of the castle, catching Neville's hand as he fell toward him, rolling them so that the boy was now sitting on the broom behind him and he flew back to the class, lowering them down to the ground. Once they were on the solid earth, Harry began to fuss over Neville, wincing when he saw his friend's right arm was broken from slamming into the stones of the castle.