Year One - Part Five

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On a Thursday early in the morning, I walked out into the common room to see most of my fellow first years looking at a notice pinned to the board filled with announcements.

"What are we all looking at?" I asked as I squeezed past to look at the bulletin board. Tacked into the cork wall was a notice that said Flying lessons would begin today with Slytherin.

"Typical." Harry Potter said with disdain, "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

I felt the same feeling of dread as Harry did. Other than Potter, I seemed to be the only one that Draco consistently picked on. He bullied everyone, don't get me wrong, but it was like he had a vendetta against the two of us specifically.

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself." Ron said hopefully to Harry, "Sure Malfoy is always going on about how good he is at quidditch, but it's probably all talk anyway. How good could he really be? He's eleven."

We walked to breakfast together and Ron regaled stories about flying on Charlie's old broom back at his home. He made it sound quite scary if you asked me. There were lots of near misses and times where he fell off and could have broken every bone in his body.

"I've never been on a broom before." Neville admitted bashfully. His face turned red with embarrassment. "Gran wouldn't let me near one."

I exchanged glances with Harry. We were both thinking the same thing. With how accident prone Neville was it was probably for his own benefit that he had gone so long without flying on a broom.

"I've checked out every book in the library about flying." Hermione said smugly. She was doing her best to hide her nerves, but she was just as scared as the rest of us who hadn't flown before. "It says that learning a proper landing technique is even more crucial than learning how to fly." Hermione continued to drawl on about everything she had read, but only Neville was really playing her any attention. In fact, he was hanging on her every word.

"The mail is here. Thank God!" Ron said. He turned to me and grinned, "Finally a distraction from the professor over here." He pointed at Hermione and I giggled. I felt a pang of guilt laughing at Hermione's expense, but Ron... he was just too cute for me not to laugh at sometimes.

A barn owl swooped low and dropped a gift in Neville's lap. "It's from my Gran." He said completely chuffed. He opened the delicate package and held up a small glass ball that fit into the palm of his hand.

"Its's a remembrall!" Neville said, "It tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do the smoke turns red." Just as he finished telling us what it did, the smoke turned bright red as he described, and so did Neville's face. "I can't remember what I've forgotten." He mumbled sadly.

Neville was trying hard to will himself to remember when Draco Malfoy, who was passing by our table with Crabbe and Goyle, snatched the remembrall out of his hand. Harry and Ron jumped up protectively and Malfoy sneered at them gleefully as he held the glass ball between his fingers.

Professor McGonagall waltzed over and eyed Malfoy from below the frames of her glasses. "Is everything alright over here?"

"Malfoy's got my remembrall, Professor." Neville said.

Malfoy scowled and dropped the ball back on the table. I reached out and grabbed it before it rolled onto the floor and shattered. "I was just looking, Professor." Malfoy said as he trotted of with Crabbe and Goyle in tow behind him.

Satisfied that her services were no longer needed McGonagall left to eat her own breakfast at the teachers table.

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