Thursday,
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
At three-thirty that afternoon, the students gathered on the grounds for their first flying lessons.
The sky was clear overhead, gusts of wind slapping against their faces gently. The grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.
Twenty-one broomsticks were waiting for them there.
"I heard Fred and George complaining about the brooms," Ron told Harry and Black. "Some of them vibrate if you fly high, or always fly slightly to the left. They have marked those brooms…"
Walking just behind them, Draco walked with a hunched back, trying to listen as much as he could about the marked brooms.
The first year Gryffindor and Slytherin's students stood facing each other.
However, both camps also had their own oddballs, sticking out like thumbs.
Over to the Slytherin's side, Daphne Greengrass and Hermione Granger stood a few feet away from Millicent Bulstrode, Vincent Crabbe, Tracey Davis, Gregory Goyle, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, Pike, Blaise Zabini, and others.
On Gryffindor's side, Draco Malfoy was still inching away from the rest of his Housemates.
The tension and silence were growing by the seconds, both trying to overwhelm each other.
It was then Madam Hooch arrived with brisk steps. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. And she wasn't alone.
Walking in her shadow, like a black wraith with white hair, was Darcie Malfoy.
The tension and silence were smothered instantly as the first-year students saw her.
Draco's eyes widened. He had no clue his sister would be here during the Flying Lessons. Suddenly, he thought of something, and his entire face paled.
Harry, Ron, and Black exchanged glances, too. They had been thinking about what Darcie meant during their visit to Hagrid. Ron especially had been dreading the coming of Thursday since the weekend. Neville gulped, knowing he was bound to do something stupid in front of her.
Somehow, for once, the five Gryffindor boys were thinking about the same thing.
"Why's she here?" Black asked.
"Now it's becoming too real for you, right?" Ron tried to joke, but he kept gulping.
Harry was worried for Black. From what he had heard, Darcie could already do magic, and pretty well at that. On the other hand, he was still learning how to properly wave the wand. He, Black, and Ron weren't exactly excellent academically, either.
"Good afternoon, students." Madam Hooch eyed them with her stark, yellow eyes.
"Good afternoon, Madam Hooch," the students answered, never taking their eyes off Darcie.
Madam Hooch looked at Darcie, standing on her right, and said, "Ms. Darcie will be joining us for her first Flying Lessons as well. Well, what are you all waiting for?! Everyone stands by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up!"
As students rushed to their broomsticks, Black jested, "Not something you can learn from the books, I guess."
Black had almost shouted these words, bringing a laugh from the Gryffindors at least, except Draco. The young Malfoy had probably not even heard his fellow roommate. He kept remembering the times with his sister when they both used to fly together, chasing a fake Golden Snitch.
Dammit! Draco cursed, his mood becoming foul.
Darcie ignored the very existence of Harry, Ron, and Black and took position to Daphne's left at the end of the Slytherin's line.
Harry leaned forward and looked at Ron beyond Black. "Where are the marks?!"
Ron just chewed on his lips.
"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say Up!"
"Up," everyone shouted.
Surprisingly, four brooms shot up to the hands hovering above them instantly.
Harry smiled, balancing the broom's momentum. Draco finally let out a smile of his own, feeling good. Black looked at Harry toward his left and then at Ron, who was gaping at him, still struggling to bring the broom up.
No one noticed that Darcie hadn't even opened her mouth.
After a while, when everyone had somehow managed to call the brooms up, Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"
What happened next was like a reel playing itself from the original storyline.
Neville flew everywhere, smacking into the walls, and then fell, breaking his wrist. Madam Hooch ran to him and her face went white.
She turned to the rest of the class.
"None of you is to move while I 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."
No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter. "Did you see his face, the great lump?"
A few Slytherin students laughed.
Then, as Parvati Patil and Pansy argued, Draco darted forward and snatched something out of the grass.
"Look!" he said. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."
The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.
Black's eyes narrowed as he saw the glassy ball. Lucky Intuitions had been bubbling up since the moment he had seen it this morning. The Ad Infinitum had concluded it the time for the Remembrall to serve its purpose and then it would become a useless plot device for the timeline, which meant —
It would be the best time to obtain the Remembrall and turn it into an Item.
"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.
Malfoy smiled nastily. "I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find — how about — on the roof?"
Under Harry's stunned gaze, Draco just took off, flying smoothly on the broom.
He circled the students once, seemingly forgetting about his sister, and then went to hover in the sky.
"What's the matter, Potter? Bit beyond your reach?"
Harry grabbed his broom.
"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move — you'll get us all into trouble."
Harry looked at the girl, not knowing why must he listen to a Slytherin anytime soon.
He ignored her, mounted the broom, and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared, blood pounding in his ears.
Black let out a thin smile as the boys and girls gasped and cheered for Harry. He saw Harry and Draco exchanging words, and then, Draco threw the Remembrall as hard as he could toward the school building.
Finally, Black thought, now, the moment…
Black was still going through his intuitions when he suddenly caught a black-white apparition blurring out from the corners of his eyes. His thoughts paused and his eyes almost popped out with urgency.
He mounted the broom and rushed with as much speed as he could, ignoring the shouts.
Darcie grabbed the Remembrall midair.
Harry, his pupils widening, maneuvered his broom with such an efficacy that it shocked even him. He spun face forward midair. Still, the thistles of the broom struck Darcie's wrist, sending the Remembrall flying up.
Black rushed to grab it, but then Draco, who wasn't even supposed to have the courage to follow Harry, slammed into Black, almost knocking both boys off their brooms.
Meanwhile, the Remembrall kept going up and up.
Black, Darcie, Draco, and Harry stared at each other momentarily, and then simultaneously looked up, spying on the sunlight-reflecting ball.
Standing in Professor McGonagall's office, Dumbledore eyed the four of them.
"Albus," the old witch said. "We must stop them before anyone gets hurt!"
Dark flames blazed in Dumbledore's blue eyes. "No, Minerva," he said, holding out his wand. "The best place for children to grow is the playground."
The Elder Wand spewed magic and…
… the Remembrall grew four, golden wings, blinking out of the students' sight.
**************
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