Not So Bad After All
The moment Raph walked into the common room, he can feel the tension amongst the first years.
He can see Ron and Harry in front of the bulletin board, glaring at the schedule put up there by the Prefects in Professor Mcgonagall's request.
"Typical." He sees Harry say. "Just what i always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."
Raph huffs in amusement as he practically shoves his way through to look at the schedule. It was flying lessons and they'll be sharing it with the Slytherins. He was a tad bit disappointed, he did want to see Mikey fumble while he's on a broom, just for a good laugh... Although seeing Leo struggle would've been much more funnier.
"You don't know you'll male a fool of yourself." Ron reassures. "Anyway, i know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is in, but i bet that's all talk."
"Wait wait, say that again." Raph suddenly speaks up, making the two jump.
"Geez you can be really silent if yku want to." Ron complains, clutching his now fast beating heart.
"Yeah yeah, say that word again." Raph brushes off.
"You mean." Harry says, his lips moved but Raph couldn't understand what he said. His eyebrows furrowed as his face soured.
"Yeah... I don't know what word you're saying, just write it down, will ya?"
They ended up burrowing some peave of parchment and a wuill real wuick from Neville to write out the word.
'Quidditch'
"Never heard of it."
Than prompted Ron to go on a spiel about the game, explaining how cool it was. Apparently it was a type of game that revolves around flyong on brooms with three types of balls that you have to be looking out for in the game. It has seven players, three of which are chasers, the guys that tosd around and shoot a ball called a 'Quaffle' through big rings.
"That's basketball." Raph says, Harry agrees. "Yeah, it's like playing vertical basketball on motorcycles."
Ron didn't really appreciate his favorite sport to be callled 'Vertical Basketball' even if he doesn't know what basketball even is. He then explains further, writing down the terms Raph wouldn't know how people would say so he can at least understand. Then there were the neaters with the 'Bludgers'. Raph quite liked that role. If he can he would absolutely play as one, it sounded cool and full of action. Apparently these bludger things were bewitched to knock people off their brooms and it's the beater's job to send them away or to their opponent using this wooden bat. He sees the pattern here, it's like combining different sports into one. It's more intense than Casey's Hardcore Hockey.
Then finally there were the seekers with the 'Snitch'. It's some tiny gold thing with wings that flies around so fast that only they can see it. If they catch it, the team gets a lot of points and the match ends.
"That's pretty violent." Raph says. Ron was ready to defend his sport when Raph grins, it was something they do not want to see again. "I'm starting to like your weird wizard stuff."
"Oh so you're a muggleborn then?" Ron asks. "You didn't know quidditch, everyone knows quidditch."
"I just knew about it from Hagrid." Harry muttered, it was. Abut hard to catch but Raph saw it.
"Isn't it obvious?" Raph says. "Yeah, me and my brothers aren't really magical until four freaking letters arrived in the mail. I thought it'd be obvious enough from whatever Donnie was doing."
"We thought you're... Pureblooded or at least have two magical parents." Raph raised an eyebrow at Ron's statement. "Don't get me wrong, it's mostly because of your brother."
"Which one?"
"The Slytherin one."
Okay, he was a bit annoyed by the fact that other people seemed to forget his brother's names. He talks about them a lot but lately, they've been calling them by which house they belong to, as if it was the only distinction between them. There was plenty thing different from them that people can use to differentiate but they use their house, which was a bit disrespectful and annoying.
He crosses his arms, looking a bit more offensive.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Raph asks, low and dangerous.
Harry kept giving Ron looks, at least he was a smart one. He understands since he was raised a muggle. What his friend was about to say is going to be offensive. Do all wizards lack common decency? At least pretend to like someone.
"I heard Slytherin never accepts muggleborns." Ron says. "Plus, your brother looks like a pretensious prick, don't you see? You've been complaining about him nagging you around just yesterday, it would probably be a bummer to be in the same class as him for the flying lessons."
Now Leo would want him to ignore the comment and move on.
Too bad he wasn't Leo.
"Listen, buddy." He steps dangerously close to the youngest Weasley boy, in the corner of his eye he saw Harry smacking himself in the forehead, his efforts to making Ron shut up was all for nothing. "You don't get to say those things about my brother, okay? Not even about 'the one in Ravenclaw' or the 'one in Hufflepuff'. If you're gonna spew out nonsense from your mouth you should at least learn their names." His voice dropped into a whisper. "If i ever fucking hear you talk shit again, well, you don't want to know what i did to that one prick in primary school, got that?"
He finally smiled at Ron, who frantically nodded his head. Good, he should be sorry.
He raises a middle finger up as he walks up the steps to the dormitory area.
If he was looking he would've seen the scandalized look on Percy's face or a loud gasp that came from Hermione. Harry was trying to hold a laigh in at Ron's predicament, the poor guy red from embarrassment.
Thursday finally came and they all went to the school grounds. Raph was noticeably distancing himself from the rest of the Gryffindors, arms crossed with a bored expression on his face. He did move his hands once in a well to reply to one of Leonardo's 'nagging' with an almost fond look on his face.
The said Slytherin was smiling softly and talking with both his hands and mouth, talking in hushed tones. If you were close enough you wouldn't rven have a clue about what he was saying but in the small snippets of their conversation, Leo seemed excited. "... Miss flying..." "Just like last time..." "So cool—" "... they keep talking about quidditch..." "... Wonder if it's like the hover motorcycles from Space Heroes..." it was hard to comprehend.
Malfoy can be seen glaring at Raphael however. He was there earlier in the morning when he tried to mess with Neville. Even if he was mad at Ron, he still went to their defense the moment the Slytherin plucked out the other's remembrall out of his hand. No one really wanted to mess with Raph, despite how he seemed to be the protector of the brothers, he was more protected.
To anyone who even tried to mess with one of the brothers, Leonardo semeed to teleport to their location in an instant.
Malfoy dropped the stupid thing before Leo can even stand up from his place with Mikey and Donnie at the Hufflepuff table. He felt three sets of eyes glaring at him.
Madam Hooch arrived and barked orders, making the kids stand next to a broom in the line, it didn't matter which place you choose, but the two houses decided to divide themselves more. Raph and Leo were facing each other, competative smiles on their faces.
"Stick your hand in front of the broom and say 'Up'!" Madam Hooch says.
The grounds were filled with the combined shouts of kids saying Up.
Harry's flew instantly in his hand, making him grin while Ron got himseld smacked in the head. Hermione's did a roll over while Neville didn't even twitch. One the Slytherin side, Malfoy's went up a few inches before plopping down while Leo's flew gracefully into his hand.
Raph's refused to cooperate, it practically tried to smack him like Ron, but he was quick catch it mid air.
"How sweet." Leo says, making people close to him look. He gave Raph a look that glinted with mischief, something others didn't know he even had in him. "It's like you and horses!"
Raph groans. Harry wonders how someone can be so loud despite not making a sound. He was signing slowly and wildly, like every word he makes has a period after it. Leo laughs, leaning on his broomstick as Raph rolled his eyes. Malfoy narrowed his eyes at the pair.
He was about to use his own broom to trip Leo off when Madam Hooch adressed the class once more.
She let's the people who haven't gotten their brooms in their hands yet to pick it off the ground. She went through the line, adjusting and teaching everyone how to properly sit on the broom without sliding off. She took one look at Leo and went on, the blue eyed slytherin's eyes widen before a proud grin broke in his face, he turned to Raph was copied him, but his hold on his broom was a tad bit hard.
Raph sneered at Malfoy as Madam Hooch fixes his form, Harry and Ron obviously enjoying the sight. Leo rolled his eyes at his brother.
"Now when i blow my whistle, you kick off the ground hard." Madam Hooch says. "Keep your brooms steady, just rise a few feet and then go than by leankng forward slightly. One... Two—"
Neville kicked off a bit too early. He was full of nerves and when he saw their teacher's lips getting closer to the mouth of the whistle, he panicked. He didn't really want tk be left alone on the ground. He launched, kickjng the ground a bit too hard, and he flew.
Up up up and he can't stop.
"Come back, boy!" Their teacher shouts, but Neville was going too high—
"No... No don't you dare—!"
Neville, white faced as he looked down at horror, his hands slipped from the broom—
"LEONARDO!"
Everyone turned to Raph as he shouts, the others gasping when they realised what sas going on.
Leonardo had a look of determination on his face as he kicks off as well. His hands let go of the handle, arms wide as he aims to catch the poor Gryffindor as he finally falls from his broom. He managed to get right under him, miscalculating a but but he managed to snag his wrist before he face planted on the floor.
"I gotcha..." Leo reassures. "Don't worry, i gotcha..."
Leo gently tips his broom doenward, making their descent slow. Neville ckung to him all the way down. As they touched down, Madam Hooch was already there as well as some of the students. Their teacher checked for injuries.
"He's just in shock." She says. "I'll take him to the hospital wing." she then turns to Leo, who was flattening his robes, awkwardly patting his hovering broom to go down, ultimately using his foot to stomp in on the floor until it stopped floating. "Thank you, dear, your reaction time was greatly. Five points to Slytherin for saving a fellow student. Now, no one touch their brooms. If i see at least two feet off the ground you'll get expelled faster than you can say 'Quidditch'!"
Leo offered to help get Neville to move but their teacher denied his offer, saying that he's done enough.
Raph came stomping towards his brother.
"You just had to do it!"
"If i didn't he'll get injured! Or worse!"
"Oh please, he would've been fine!"
"How'd you know that?"
"For once just relax and stop playong hero! Geez you gave me a heart attack, Donnie is not going to like this once i fucking tell him."
"Dont tell him!"
"Well now i have to tell him!"
Harry watched the two brothers bickering amongst each other. It escalated into a small wrestling match with Leo dragging Raph back when he tried getting back in the castle, remembering Donnie had a free space in his schedule.
He elbowed Ron. "Does that look like a pretentious prick to you?"
Ron groans. "Can we not?" Harry just let's out a small laugh. "I guess he's not so bad after all..."
Maybe not all Slytherins are bad.
"Did you see his face, the great lump?"
Nevermind.