Flying and Research
"Wow," Harry said. Everyone kept saying 'up' until their broom was in their hands but some were still struggling with it. I snickered at Ron's look of frustration. "What?" Harry asked.
"Look at Weasel," I said.
"Weasel?"
"Well, if you change the last two letters around and add on a 'y' and you get Weasley and he does kind of look like a Weasel, doesn't he? Hermione's also Teacher's Pet because she's such a teacher's pet."
"Yes, that nickname suits her perfectly," Draco snickered.
"Weasley actually does kind of look like a Weasel," Harry said as he looked over at Weasel. He snickered. "You know, it's fitting Hawke is his friend. If he didn't have any parents, he could go live with the Weasels. With his red hair, he'd fit right in and they do have enough kids that they wouldn't notice the addition of an extra one." All the Slytherins snickered at Harry's quiet comment and the few Ravenclaws that had heard chuckled.
"With feeling," Madam Hooch commanded. At this point, all of the Slytherins had their brooms in their hands and only one Ravenclaw and two Hufflepuffs didn't but in Gryffindor, Toad Boy, Hawke, Teacher's Pet, Weasel, Finnigan and Thomas hadn't managed it.
"Up!" Weasel said in frustration before his broom whacked him in the face and everyone other than Weasel and Madam Hooch, including the other Gryffindors, laughed. "Oh! Shut up, Jackson."
"Now, once you've got a hold of your broom, I want you to mount it," Madam Hooch said and we did as we were told. "And grip it tight. You don't want to be sliding off the end." She started walking down between the two rows. "When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground, hard." She turned around and started walking back. "Keep your brooms steady, hover for a moment, then lean forward slightly and touch back down. On my whistle." She turned around to face us. "Three, two..." She blew her whistle and Toad Boy started to rise up into the air. He moved about a bit making awful noises. "Mr Longbottom. Mr Longbottom. Mr... Mr Longbottom!" She yelled as Toad Boy started to fly away.
"Down! Down!" Toad Boy yelled but the broom wouldn't listen to him and just kept going higher and higher. All of the Slytherin students snickered and chuckled.
"At least we know he won't be playing Quidditch," Theo said.
"If this is the state of the Gryffindors' flying abilities," Blaise said. "Then, Gryffindor doesn't stand a chance of having a half-decent player any time soon."
"Neville!" Hawke yelled.
"Come back down this instant!" Madam Hooch demanded.
"Madam Hooch, I don't think he can," Boot said. Toad Boy's broom hit the castle wall, turned 180 degrees, hit the wall a second time, turned another 180 degrees, hit the wall a third time and then began flying towards us. I grabbed Harry and Draco and Harry grabbed Blaise and we pulled the others out of the way. The rest of Slytherin got the hint and moved. Madam Hooch pulled out her Wand and pointed it at Toad Boy.
"Mr Longbo-" She cut herself off as she and the other students finally got the hint and dived out of the way just in time for Toad Boy to fly past. He flew out of view for a few seconds before coming back into view and his school robe got caught on a spear held by a statue and he started dangling from it as his broom flew away. He seemed to be making weird noises as he looks down at us and his robe seems to be ripping. No wonder. That robe cannot hold that fat, Toad Boy's weight. He fell as his robe ripped and got caught on a torch and then fell out of his robe and onto the floor.
"Ow!" Toad Boy said.
"Everyone out of the way!" Madam Hooch demanded. We moved and she ran over to him. "Come here." She pulled him up slightly.
"Hey, Draco," I whispered.
"What?" He whispered back.
"Is he all right?" Someone whispered. Who cares?
"Ow, ow. Ow," Toad Boy said as Madam Hooch moved his wrist.
"Pick up Toad Boy's Rememberall for me."
"Oh, oh, oh, dear, it's a broken wrist." Draco picked up the Rememberall off of the floor as Madam Hooch made a tutting noise. "Poor boy. Come on now, up you get." She pulled him up and kept his arm up.
"I need you to do me a favour, Draco," I whispered.
"Everyone is to keep their feet firmly on the ground while I take Mr Longbottom to the Hospital Wing. Understand?" She asked as she started walking passed us. "If I see a single broom in the air, the one riding it will find themselves out of Hogwarts before they can say Quidditch."
"Cause a scene and get a Gryffindor in the air for me, please," I whispered to Draco. Draco waited for Madam Hooch to be out of earshot before showing off the Rememberall Toad Boy had been showing off at lunch.
"Did you see his face?" Draco asked at normal volume as he threw the Rememberall in the air and caught it. "Maybe if the fat lump had given this a squeeze, he'd have remembered to fall on his fat arse." Everyone but the Gryffindors laughed.
"Give it here, Malfoy," Hawke demanded. Draco turned to face him.
"No." He threw it over to Harry and Harry caught it. "I want to have some fun with it." He flew into the air and gestured to Harry. Harry tossed the Rememberall to Draco as I got on my broom and joined Draco in the air.
"I think we should leave it somewhere for Toad Boy to find," I suggested as Harry joined us. "Draco, once Harry and I have him in the air and distracted, fly off and get Professor Snape as fast as possible," I whispered. "We'll keep him in the air as long as we can."
"How about on the roof?" Harry suggested as Draco threw the Rememberall to me before nodding to show he had heard me.
"What's the matter, Hawke? Bit beyond your reach?" Draco asked. Hawke mounted his broom.
"Jackson, no way!" Teacher's Pet said. "You heard what Madam Hooch said. Besides, you don't even know how to fly."
"Actually, my dad taught me." Yet he couldn't get his broom up until after over half of the class had and Harry and I, who had never even touched a broom before, got ours up first try. Hawke rose into the air. "What an idiot."
"Give it here, Potter, or I'll knock you off your broom!" Hawke demanded.
"Is that so?" I questioned as I tossed it in the air and Draco flew away. Hawke tried to speed at me but I dodged and Hawke almost fell off of his broom and Harry and I snickered. "Have it your way then," I said and tossed the Rememberall in the direction of Professor McGonagall's classroom. That should get Hawke into trouble. He raced after it, not noticing that Harry had snatched it out of the air a second after I threw it. Hawke crashed into Professor McGonagall's window just as Harry and I dismounted our brooms. Hawke started falling but was stopped by a spell from Professor Snape's Wand.
"What is going on here, Miss Potter? Mr Potter?" I saw Draco nodding from behind Professor Snape.
"We were told not to leave the ground by Madam Hooch and that, if she saw us riding our brooms," I stressed that part so Professor Snape would have an argument for us against the other teachers. "We'd be expelled. She had to take Longbottom to the Hospital Wing because he got injured, Sir."
"But then Hawke grabbed his Rememberall and started making fun of him, Sir," Blaise said.
"He started going on about how he was going to put it in the roof," Pansy continued.
"And then started flying," Daphne said.
"Badly," Winter added.
"And Emma and Harry went after him on their brooms and Draco flew away," Theo said.
"To go and get you, Sir, as the dungeons are the closest," Draco said.
"Then, Hawke was tossing the Rememberall in the air while taunting me and Harry," I said.
"And he dropped it and Emma caught it so he started threatening us to try to get us to give it back," Harry said.
"So I threw it knowing Harry could grab it before Hawke and Hawke lost control of his broom and crashed into Professor McGonagall's window, Sir," I finished. The Ravenclaws stayed silent and so did some of the Hufflepuffs but the other Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors were all yelling about how it's all lies.
"Twenty points to Slytherin for you both for trying and succeeding in recovering a fellow student's property and ten points to you, Mr Malfoy, for getting a teacher as the rest of you should have. Twenty points from Gryffindor for stealing and lying. As for the flying and catching that Rememberall, which I will ensure Mr Longbottom gets back," Professor Snape said as he held his hand out. Harry passed it to him. "I saw some of it and you were both quite talented. Slytherin's Seeker is terrible and one of our Chasers graduated. Mr Potter, you are Slytherin's new Seeker and Miss Potter you are Slytherin's newest Chaser. I will inform Slytherin's Captain, fifth-year Marcus Flint, about this. Mr Hawke, you will have detention with me for the rest of the month." Harry and I grinned at each other as the other Slytherins started celebrating and congratulating us. Hawke started protesting. "And next month too."
...
"These magical cards are awesome," Harry said as we walked over to them. Madam Pince told us if we pick a card out while thinking about what we want to find, it will magically write on itself every book reference that even mentions the topic.
"Yep."
"So what do we search?"
"You search for 'rock' and I'll do 'boulder' and then we'll do 'stone' and 'gem' and then 'gemstone' and 'jewel'," I suggested.
"Well, they are special rocks so that makes sense," Harry said.
...
"Emma, look what I found!" Harry said and I read over the text.
"'Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone'," I read. "'The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It'll transform any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life which will make the drinker immortal'."
"Cool!" Harry whispered in awe.
"'The only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr Nicholas Flamel, the noted Alchemist, who last year celebrated his 656th birthday'," I finished.
"Damn, he's so old," Harry said.
"I know, right?"
"If Hagrid took the Philosopher's Stone, where do you think it's being kept? Someone broke into Gringotts and it's believed that Hogwarts is the only safer place. So, it has to be here somewhere," Harry said.
"What would you do if you had something really valuable like that?"
"Put protections around it."
"Exactly and where were we told not to go unless we 'want to die a most painful death'?"
"The third-floor corridor on the right-hand side," Harry said with wide eyes. "Let's go and check it out."
...
"Are you two all right?" Theo asked.
"What?" I asked as I shook myself out of it only to notice I was in the Slytherin Common Room sitting next to Harry with all of the other Slytherins in our year surrounding us.
"You've been sort of..." Blaise trailed off.
"Zoned out," Draco said.
"We almost got killed by a three-headed dog in the third-floor corridor. Dumbledore wasn't joking when he said it's 'out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death'."
"We were almost dog food," Harry whispered in shock. I shoved him hard and he snapped out of it.
"Well, Hawke was expelled," Draco said.
...