Catching Up With Friends
I slip into Minnie’s classroom right before she was starting the first lesson with her first years. Hermione is surprised to see me at first before beaming a smile my way.
“Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,” Minnie begins the class. “Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.” She turned her desk into a pig and right back into the desk. I could see the excitement in their eyes at the thought of being able to do that themself. When Minnie instructed them to take notes as she goes over the theory, all but Hermione deflate in disappointment.
Ron wasn’t paying attention and kept trying to distract Harry but I flicked a piece of chalk at him. It hit his temple and he turned to glare at me but I was pretending to write something on the parchment in front of me. When it came time to try and perform the spell they were learning, Minnie gave me the matchsticks to pass out.
“Now you will use what we have discussed and turn your matchstick into a needle, like so.” Minnie demonstrated the spell before walking around to supervise the attempts.
“How are you liking classes so far?” I sit in the empty chair next to Hermione, waiting patiently as she looks over her notes one last time.
“It’s amazing! I can’t believe you get to live in this world all the time now!” Hermione smiled at me before scrunching her face up in concentration and trying the spell. I sit quietly to let her focus, Minnie’s hand landing on my shoulder as she passed by during her rounds. Hermione gave the matchstick a determined look and tried the spell one last time before grinning in triumph at the sliver and pointy matchstick.
“Well done Miss Granger,” Minnie smiled, grabbing the matchstick to hold it up for the class to see.
“You are a natural with magic!” I lean onto the Gryffindor who blushes at my praise.
“I think we can expect great things from you, five points to Gryffindor.” Minnie winked at us before heading back up to the front of the room.
“You got the closest out of the class!” I grin up at Hermione. She blushes and looks down at her desk.
“I did, didn’t I?” Hermione beams at me and I stay to talk a bit more with her before they have to go to their next class. I skip up the rows of desks and plant myself on top of Minnie’s desk, swinging my feet as she waves her wand to gather the matchsticks.
“So?” Minnie raises her eyebrow at my probing.
“So what, my wee lion?” Minnie’s mouth quirks up a bit and I groan dramatically, flopping backward on her desk.
“What did you think of Hermione?”
“She reminds me of the brightest witch from my years at Hogwarts,” Minnie gets a far-off look in her eyes, remembering back before things got heavy with the war.
“She would always have a book on her,” I recall fondly back to my time with the Grangers. Fred and George enter, bringing us out of our reminiscing and I give them both a hug before being shooed out of the classroom by Minnie.
“You will not be in this room when they are, I had far too many issues last year,” Minnie grumbles as I laugh on my way out. I wave at a few people in passing as I wander the corridors. I set off the stairs to the second floor and see a second-year Ravenclaw stop a random first-year Gryffindor.
“You don’t want to go in there, Moaning Myrtle will have your shoes soaked through in seconds,” They warned and I feel a flash of anger. Myrtle isn’t someone to be afraid of, she's harmless! I eye the two of them when they pass me and push open the door to the bathroom. It was silent, Myrtle wasn’t stuck in her past today.
“Hey Myrtle, are you wanting some company?” I asked as I step further into the bathroom.
“You finally decide to come to visit,” Myrtle pops her head up above the door of her stall.
“You know how busy it is at the beginning of the semester," I roll my eyes as she smirks at me.
"What has brought you to my humble bathroom?" Myrtle floats over to join me at the back of the room where I sit on the floor.
“Visiting a friend, wanted to see how you were doing since the last time I saw you,” I lean forward to rest my elbows on my knees to prop up my chin on my fists.
“You want to hear the gossip,” Myrtle rolls her eyes, but her mouth lifts into a smirk, “You will not believe the fight Nick had with the Headless Hunt when they revoked his application to join,” I spend until dinner catching up on the gossip with Myrtle, being a ghost who can blend into the background has its advantages, she knew almost everything going on in the castle.
“Pipsqueak!” Fred threw the doors open with a flourish as he strode into the room.
“Myrtle, how was your gossip session?” George followed with a grin and a twinkle in his eye that matched his brother even if he wasn’t as extra.
“You do know boys aren’t allowed in here,” Myrtle huffs. I was glad that she didn’t protest too much, knowing that the twins were harmless.
“Aw! Be we aren’t just any boys, we are here to collect our reclusive sister to join us for dinner!” Fred offers me a hand up and I catch George putting the map back in his pocket. I roll my eyes at his sheepish grin.
“We didn’t want to have to go to every single one of your spots,” He admitted as Fred pulled me into his side.
“Since when is Eva your sister?” Myrtle asked and I raise a brow at the boys, eager to hear their answer as well.
“Since we adopted her! If Minnie is her guardian then we are her brothers by proxy. All of Gryffindor are her siblings.” George reasoned.
“Love ya to you big lugs,” I gently punch their arms as they lead me out of the bathroom, “See you later Myrtle!” Fred taps my head, instigating a game of tag around the halls on the way down to the Great Hall, George being it and rushing to Cedric to make him it when we get there. I laugh as Cedric falls off the bench to avoid him, plopping down next to Hermione who shoots me a grin.
“Have a good day?” Hermione asked as I put food on my plate. I grin at a disgruntled Ron who was staring at me.
“I had a pretty good day. Caught up on the gossip of Hogwarts, chased the twins through the halls, got to see you do great with hard magic, all and all it was a great day!” I grin as her blush spreads to the tips of her ears. Still not good at getting compliments then.
“I didn’t get the match stick to turn into a needle though,” She looks down and Neville speaks up from across the table.
“But no one else was able to get as far as you did,” He offered the girl a smile that was shyly returned.
“Transfiguration isn’t easy,” George sits next to Fred, his face flushed. I turn my head to see Professor Sprout shaking her head with a fond smile as a sheepish Cedric follows her back to his spot at the yellow table.
“Do you want to hang out after dinner? We can go to the library,” I offer and Hermione’s face lights up at the prospect of a library.
“I have been dying to see it all day! I never had time,” Hermione sighs, and I nudge her with my shoulder.
“Pip here is the leading expert on the Hogwarts library, after Madam Pince of course,” Fred shakes his head in exasperation.
“Pince has to kick her out sometimes,” George adds, copying his brother's expression. I reach to swat at the boys, but they manage to stay out of my reach. Dinner passes quickly after that and I was soon dragged by an excited Hermione to the library, Neville following after us when I grabbed his wrist.
“How had your day gone Nev? Talk to Ginny much?” I turn to look at the boy behind me, trusting Hermione not to let me run into anything.
“Ginny told me what you said about my wand,” Neville sighed, “I think you were right. I couldn’t do any of the spells we were taught today.” His shoulders slump and Hermione slows down to face us, confusion evident in her expression.
“Neville is using his dad’s wand, some wands don’t cooperate with people other than their chosen wizard,” I explain.
“Gran was so insistent that I use it though, thought it would work just fine,” Neville pulled his wand out to stare at it.
“Is there anything you can do to make it work better?” Hermione questioned and I shook my head before Neville could get his hopes up. We are silent as I think of everything I have read about wand lore. Hermione’s breath hitched and alerted me to our arrival at the library.
“Whoa,” Neville whispered as I lead them in with a nod to the librarian.
“We can either get started on your homework or I can show you where all the different sections are,” I suggest as I enter the bookcases.
“Show us around first, I think we lost her,” Neville watched Hermione with amusement as she reverently traced the spine of a book nearby. “Reminds me of you.” I nudge his shoulder with mine and grab the other Gryffindor’s hand to gently drag her away. I point out every section and tell them all the relevant information I know so they can navigate the stacks more easily. After that I pointed them in the right direction for their homework, helping Neville more than Hermione, who was devouring the assigned reading.
“You three need to get going. The library is closing for the night.” Madam Pince approached our table and we quickly packed our things up before checking the needed books out.
“Thank you Madam Pince!” I wave after she lets us out.
“Have a good night children,” The corner of her mouth tilts up before falling back into her permanent scowl.
“If you ever need anything, ask the twins and they can tell you where I am.” I give them both a hug as we reach the point where I needed to split off to get to my chambers for the night.
“It is good seeing you again,” Hermione pulled me into a tight hug that I returned in full.
“Ginny said I had to keep you out of trouble, but somehow I feel like that is a pointless job,” Neville gently teases and I give him an innocent grin.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” My grin widens at their laughter before we go our separate ways.
The next time I saw them though, it was not a laughing matter. I step into the hospital wing after hearing rumors going around about their latest potions class. Neville was having his boils treated while Hermione sat on the chair next to his bed.
“Put the quills in before removing the cauldron from the flame, yeah?” I grimace with the boy as more of the boils are removed.
“I wasn’t able to stop him in time,” Hermione sighed, her guilt shining in her eyes.
“Not your fault,” Neville winced in pain.
“We’ll help ya Nev, don’t worry. By the time we are through with you, Uncle Sev will be so impressed he will forget to insult you!” I plop down on the floor and lean back against Hermione’s legs. We stay with him until he was cleared and go over the potion in the library after dinner, making sure he knew what he did wrong and why it reacted the way it did. Fred, George, and Cedric joined us for the rest of the week when they finally decide that they need to start doing their homework.
Thursday morning Neville got a package at breakfast. I noticed his family owl swoop down from my spot at the Hufflepuff table with Cedric. When I see Draco Malfoy and his two goons approach and snatch something from my friends I stand up from my seat and make my way over, Cedric following me as he takes in the situation. Minnie beat us there and Malfoy dropped the ball back in Neville’s hand before leaving.
“What did you get Nev?” I ask as Cedric tussles his hair.
“Gran sent me a rememberall,” Neville held the orb up for us to see. The red smoke swirling around indicated that he forgot something.
“Well now you know you forgot something, just not what.” Cedric chuckled, “Good luck with your flying today, I’ll see you later.” Cedric kissed the top of my head and patted Neville on the shoulder as he joined his friends waiting to leave the Great Hall.
“Are your robes in your bag?” I sit next to him and lean over to check his bag, not finding the black fabric.
“You’re right!” Neville takes his bag from my extended hand and I get up to follow the boy, waving to Hermione as we pass where she was sitting. I break off to go down to the field used for flying lessons and find Madam Hooch already there and giving the brooms one final look over.
“Good morning!” I greet her as I join her in straightening the bristles of the broomsticks.
“You here to be my assistant again? Merlin knows I need the help,” Hooch sighs.
“You also need better brooms, some of these can be difficult for the more inexperienced fliers.” I start testing the brooms' willingness to be controlled by commanding them up into my hand. I make two piles, ones that are more temperamental and the ones that will most likely buck you off.
“Do you have the Huffleclaw class first? Or the Slytherdor?” I ask as we step inside to grab more brooms.
“Only you would think of combining the houses into one name!” She laughs, wiping a tear from her eye. “The Huffleclaw class will be first, at one fifteen.” She tried the name out, a smirk growing on her face.
We prep the brooms and I greet the first-years enthusiastically as they line up by their brooms. I grab the one extra broom and take a place at the front of the group to demonstrate as Madame Hooch instructs. Some students get it right away while others were struggling to get their broom to listen to them. I approach a redhead and her friend who were both not able to get their brooms to even twitch from their places.
“Hi! Sorry, it looks like you got some of the problematic brooms.” I apologize when I get their attention. The redhead gives me a smile when she sees me.
“I figured, Aunt Amelia taught me how to fly and these brooms aren’t reacting right.” She offers me the broom when I point at it and watches as I summon it to my hand.
“You just have to be more firm with these. They are old and need to be replaced,” I suggest, putting the broom back down for her. She tries again and I smile as it goes to her hand without a problem this time. Her friend tries it as well and she beams when her broom obeys the command.
“There you go! And don’t worry about flying on them, you won’t be doing much more than flying low circles today so there is no danger of getting hurt.” I reassure them when I see the blonde’s face fall a bit.
“That’s a relief,” Her shoulders relax a bit, “I’m Hannah by the way, and this is Susan.”
“Eva, I’m typically referred to as Hogwarts’ mascot by the older years,” I shake their offered hands as we wait for the others to finally get their brooms to cooperate.
“Cedric’s little sister! He talks about you a lot,” Susan beams at me and I feel a blush spread over my cheeks.
“Not really,” I deny.
“Eva! Time to demonstrate the take-off!” Madam Hooch calls me back to the front and I bid the two girls goodbye. As I walk around helping some students adjust their grip to have a better handle on their broom, I manage to stop one of the older brooms from bucking a student off or going crazy. When I continue my rounds, I meet Padma and Terry, who both wobble on their descent.
“Don’t tip the end of the broom too far down, you only need to a little bit,” I hop on my broom and demonstrate for them again, making sure they were paying attention to how much I tilted my broom.
“Thank you!” Padma grinned at me once she had landed smoothly, “Can you imagine how much harder this class would be without someone here to demonstrate?”
“I figured flying needed to be shown to someone, some of the instructions are a bit confusing to learn if you can’t see them. Tilt your broomstick down to land? How far down do you tilt the broomstick?” I ask as we watch Terry land with a steadier footing than he had previously.
“That is an excellent point, do you think they do something like that for every class? Or are all classes strictly textbook while others are all about a demonstration?” Terry mused to Padma who furrowed her brows in thought.
“Most classes are a mix of both,” I inform them as I look around the field. Most of the students had been able to kick off and land successfully at least once by this point. “Some classes like Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions all are mostly demonstrative during the block, but they have research-based homework that you have to do.”
“Interesting,” They both muse, having forgotten about their flying lesson.
“Alright, class! Please put your broom back where you found them and head off, you all did great work today!” Madam Hooch finally calls time and I help her reset everything for the Slytherdor group. The two houses stared at each other in their groups and Madam Hooch gets impatient to start.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” She barked. “Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up.” As she directs everyone to summon their broomstick I see Harry’s and Draco’s being the first to listen. I could tell Hermione was getting frustrated by her broom not listening and Neville looked downright terrified.
“You have to mean it,” I approach the two, startling Neville who jumped.
“But I don’t see the point of flying on something that should not be able to fly!” Hermione hissed as she eyed the Slytherin group.
“If you don’t mean it then the broom is less likely to listen to you,” I summon Hermione’s broom to my hand with no problem and she sighs in resignation.
“I’ve never flown before,” Neville revealed as he looks down at his broom.
“It’s not that hard Nev. It would be easier if Dumbledore sprung for some new brooms, but not everything gets his attention.” I pat the boy on the shoulder. I hear a thunk and look over to see Ron holding his nose, his broom laying in a different position. I hide a smirk behind my hand as Neville cracks a smile.
“He deserves that, not been very nice to Mione so far,” Neville says and Hermione turns to Neville in confusion.
“What do you mean?” She asked and I feel my blood start to boil.
“He says some things about you when we are getting ready for bed, but Harry tries to stop him every time.” Neville looked sheepish and I glare at the Weasley who notices and scrunches his face at me.
“He is a pig, no manners to be found anywhere in him,” I growl.
“It’s fine,” Hermione puts her hand on my shoulder before calling her broom into her hand, it obeying her this time. Neville was the last one to get his broom off the ground but I made sure he didn’t feel too bad about it. I help her walk up and down the rows as we correct grips so no one fell off, her taking the Slytherin side as I did the Gryffindor. Harry smiled at me when I helped him and I beam back before joining Hooch in the front.
“Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard,” Hooch explained. “Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle, one - two -”
I watch in dread as Neville, nervous about being the last one again, kicked off hard too early. He shot into the sky like a bottle rocket. He climbed up fast, twelve feet then twenty. I was on my broom and flying to help as Madame Hooch called from the ground. Neville was paler than a ghost and I feel my heart skip a beat as his grip slips from his broom. He falls off, and I feel my fingers barely brush his sleeve when I reach out to catch him. A sickening crunch signaled his landing and I dive down when he doesn’t move.
“Nev!” I discard my broom to the side and reach the boy at the same time as Madam Hooch. She shooshed the boy as she examined him and I notice how pale her face was, something like this happens at least once a year but it still terrifies the professor every time.
“Broken wrist,” She sighs, some color returning to her face, “Come on boy, up you get.” She helps Neville up to his feet before turning to the rest of the class.
“None of you is to move while we take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you’ll be out of Hogwarts before you can say ‘Quidditch.’ Come on, dear.” She directs Neville to the building and I put a hand on his shoulder to let him know I am there for him. Sitting with Neville in the hospital wing was coming to be a common occurrence, one that I wasn’t fond of.
“Sorry,” He apologizes a while later.
“I’m just glad you didn’t have any worse damage,” I smile. Hermione bursts in through the doors, her hair more frizzled than normal.
“That idiot!”