Off to a Bad Start
A week passes and Lily lets me avoid her. She moves to a different table in the library. She walks from Transfiguration to Potions with her friends from Gryffindor.
She still talks to Severus, which is good. He has actually been fairly polite to me.
If Lily likes him, I should at least give him a chance.
The Tuesday after my first tutoring session with Eleanor is also the day our flying lessons start.
Another class with Gryffindor. I only worry about avoiding Lily for a minute though. James and Sirius, along with two other Gryffindors, take over the class immediately, joking around and bragging about their flying prowess. It is easy to hide in the back.
Madame Hooch, both the flying instructor and the referee for a school sport called Quidditch, which I am yet to understand, walks us from the broom closet to the front lawn of the school.
“Form two lines,” she yells, and we all hop to it. I end up between a boy whose name I haven’t bothered to learn and Sadie.
“Today, we will focus on summoning and mounting your broom. There will be no silly flying and no risky business.”
“And absolutely no fun,” Sirius imitates Madame Hooch rather accurately.
“Two points from Gryffindor, Mr. Black,” Madame Hooch reprimands him, but he doesn’t look affected by the scolding at all.
I do notice Lily glaring at the back of his head though and stifle a laugh, reminding myself I am not supposed to be looking at Lily.
“Alright, each of you should hold your hand over your broom and say “up” to summon it. On the count of three. One. Two. Three.” She whistles.
Noise erupts.
James is the first to successfully summon his broom, followed soon after by a lot of other students, Sirius included.
I look down at my broom and smile. Flying broomsticks. Marvelous.
“Up,” I say authoritatively and to my surprise, the broom lifts into my hand. I smile, pleased with myself.
Eventually, everyone manages to summon their broom.
“Alright, now we will mount our brooms,” we all follow her instructions. “Good. I want each of you to kick off hard from the ground. Hover, and then touch back down.”
She counts again, but this time, there is far more chaos. Students sliding off their brooms, rising higher than intended, and knocking into the students beside them. I manage to hover fairly easily, and am already setting my sights on flying for real.
“Come down here, Mr. Pettigrew!” Madame Hooch is yelling after a pudgy blond boy who has lost control of his broom.
His so-called friends, James and Sirius, are cracking up.
We all watch as he tries to steer himself towards the ground, only to fall off his broom and crash to the ground.
He lets out a pained moan and Madame Hooch helps him up.
“I’m going to take him to the hospital wing. Stay on the ground,” she says absentmindedly, more focused on the poor boys limping leg.
We all watch them leave.
“He should have fallen on his fat-arse,” Avery mutters to his gang of friends.
Severus snickers.
“What are you laughing at?” Sirius asks, angry.
Severus just stares.
I have absolutely no idea how or why, but the next moment a fight has broken out between Gryffindor and Slytherin.
I watch, slightly amused at the childish violence, when I see Sirius move for his wand.
“Impedimenta!” I point my own wand at him, slowing him enough that a tall Slytherin boy can push him away from Severus.
Eleanor had taught me the jinx last night. I’m a little shocked it worked.
I lower my wand and Sirius glares at me.
“What do you think you are doing? You stuck up swot!” he yells at me.
Stuck up? I feel myself go red.
Every eye turns to look at me. I’ve just used magic against another student. Shit.
I turn and run from the grounds, tears streaming down my face.
“Ms. Fawley, shouldn’t you be in class?” a voice stops me dead in my tracks. I turn and wipe my face with my hands. It is Professor McGonagall.
“Apologies, Professor, I-” stuttering, I try to think of what to say.
“What happened?” she looks concerned and it only makes me cry harder.
“I jinxed Black,” I confess, shrugging.
“Really?” She asks. “What for?”
“There was a fight. I was just trying to stop it. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I certainly didn’t mean to hurt him,” I ramble.
“I see. And where did you learn the Impedimenta Jinx?”
How does she know what spell I used?
“Connie, I saw everything from my office. That is why I was walking this way. To intervene. Although, it seems you took care of it well enough.”
“I asked an older student to teach me some defensive spells.”
“Defensive spells? Why would you need to know those? Has a student harmed you?”
Like I am going to snitch on anyone.
I shake my head firmly.
“It is just that I am struggling to fit in. There is so much I don’t know. About magic. About my family,” I look up at her through my lashes and see guilt flash on her face.
“Well, I shall assume Mr. Black was well-deserving of your action. Two points to Slytherin, for quick thinking. And, Ms. Derringer-”
“Fawley.”
“Ms. Fawley, apologies. Please come see me in my office when you have a chance. We should discuss your family. You may go, flying lessons will be ending shortly,” she says with a twinkle in her eye.
I don’t question her, shocked at my luck. I broke a fairly important school rule and she gave me points.
Later, after dinner, I am sitting in a leather chair by the hearth in the common room, trying to focus on my History of Magic textbook.
“Connie?” Severus sits in the chair opposite from me.
I sigh and close the book, resigned to finishing the reading tomorrow, when I am not so tired.
“Severus, hello,” I greet him.
“I just wanted to say thank you. For this morning. Stopping Black.”
Each sentence is curt. Short. I wouldn’t have had to stop Black if he hadn’t been laughing at poor Peter Pettigrew, who had in fact sprained his ankle, as I overheard at dinner.
“You are welcome,” I reply.
“I’ve noticed that you are rather good at Charms.”
I nod.
“Well let me know if you ever need help with Potions, we could study together,” he offers.
I nod again.
“You aren’t very talkative,” he leans back in the chair. He doesn’t sound upset about it though. Just observant.
“Do you have any advice on how to deseed the Sneezing Pepper?” I ask.
He smiles. “All you have to do is keep it warm. I usually do it over a small flame,” he says. “I can show you in Potions tomorrow.”
“No!” I say too loudly. I don’t want to see Lily and they always partner up. “Maybe you could just show me some other time? Slughorn lets students use the potions classroom to study.”
“Alright. Well, I am going to head off to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Severus stands and smiles.
I go back to nodding. Silence is golden. That is what Sister Hilda always said anyways.