If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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17 September 1991, Hogwarts
Alas, all good things come to an end, and the relatively peaceful flying lesson ended when Malfoy purposefully pretended like he had lost control of his broom and slammed into Ron Weasley, who lost control as well and was falling towards the ground.
Harry was sure that the redhead was going to die. The boy was gripping the broom as if it was his lifeline and practically accelerating towards the ground. Longbottom seemed to fly behind him trying to stop him, to no avail. Everyone had thought that the boy was done for until the professor quickly shouted, "Molliare!"
Instead of crashing, the redhead simply bounced on the ground and then a few times until he fell outside the spell. Harry had read about the incantation that the professor had used. It was for the cushioning charm, which is usually used on brooms to make them more comfortable, but Professor Hooch had somehow manipulated the spell to make sure the Gryffindor wouldn't hurt himself while falling.
Still, the redhead was whimpering and was holding his arm, which looked very bruised. The professor immediately ran at the injured student and spoke up, "Let me take a look at your arm. Hmm, it looks like a broken wrist. Why don't I take you to the infirmary? Don't worry, Madam Pomphrey will fix that right up."
She then turned and looked at Malfoy, "As for you, Mr Malfoy, I'm taking fifty points from Slytherin and another week of detention."
"But…" the boy protested.
"But nothing," the flying instructor interrupted while glaring back at him, "You injured your classmate, and you could have gotten him killed. If I wasn't paying attention, your classmate could have severely gotten hurt. You need to think about the consequences of your actions, Mr Malfoy."
Hooch then 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."
As expected, the moment the woman left with the whimpering student, Longbottom walked towards Malfoy with his wand pointed and snarled, "You'll pay for that!!"
The blonde immediately raised his own and smirked back, "I don't think so."
He was immediately backed up by Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, and Nott while the rest of the Gryffindor boys backed up the boy who lived.
For some reason, Draco gave Harry an expecting look. Which Harry simply ignored and took out his fiction book.
The entire little conflict just stood there, frozen, giving the last Potter incredulous looks. Daphne hit Harry on the side, and he looked up with a fakery annoyed voice, "What is it?"
She just pointed at their frozen classmates that were giving him expectant looks, which Harry ignored, "Mm very interesting…"
Seamus Finnigan shrieked, "What's so interesting?"
"Oh, Dresden the curse breaker just entered the temple of doom after getting past a sphinx by solving its riddle. I just find it interesting how writers often reuse common riddles in their books for some reason. Like come on, it's not that hard to be creative for once. Like seriously, the Ravenclaw knocker would probably help them. It's kinda put me off the whole series, to be honest…" Harry shot back.
Longbottom looked frustrated, "What are you on about?"
Harry just pretended to be confused and tilted his head, "Well, I was reading the book, and Seamus here just asked me what was interesting, so I told him. You need to pay attention to conversations, Neville. It's very rude to just ignore your classmate's questions."
Malfoy burst into laughter, "See, even Potter thinks you're an idiot."
The rest of his sycophants joined in.
"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.
"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson. "Do you have a crush on him or something? Or is he too scared to talk for himself?"
Longbottom was blushing from embarrassment and looked at Harry, "Are you seriously taking their side?"
"Their side for what?" Harry answered while doing his best to look oblivious.
"Did you seriously not see Malfoy push Ron off his broom?" Neville questioned.
"Oh, yeah, I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy reading, you see."
"You were flying," the Longbottom scion protested.
"So, I was."
Harry didn't elaborate on his words and Longbottom let out a frustrated groan, "Don't be an idiot Potter, are you with me or against me."
"With you or against you for what?"
"For the fight with Malfoy!!" Neville yelled back.
"Why are you fighting with Malfoy?" Harry asked.
"Because he hurt Ron for no reason!!"
Harry shrugged and looked pensive, "What an unfortunate situation we find ourselves in."
Honestly, Harry had no idea what he was saying. He was just buying some time by confusing his classmates until Hooch comes here. Because they start firing spells without any adult nearby to stop them, people could easily get hurt.
Malfoy grinned at him, "It's good that you know where you belong, Potter."
"I'm afraid I don't understand, Draco dear."
The boy gritted his teeth at the familiarity Harry was addressing him with.
The blonde though, controlled himself, "I mean that you're a Slytherin. That you're with us."
"Well, of course, I'm in Slytherin. Draco, we've been having classes together for two weeks, hell, we're in the same dormitory. Were you not paying attention?"
The Gryffindors were now chuckling, and Malfoy turned in a nice shade of red, that reminded Harry of Ron Weasley's hair.
"Enough, Potter," Draco yelled at him, "Stop playing stupid, we're fighting Longbottom right now. So, you're either with us or against us. How is that HARD TO UNDERSTAND?"
Harry though had stopped listening to the blonde and continued reading his book. Daphne elbowed him to the side again. The young Slytherin noted that she had an amused gleam in her blue eyes.
He pretended to be surprised and looked up at Draco, "Oh, did you say something? This chapter is just very good and stopped listening to you."
The blonde then walked towards Harry in a threatening manner. Harry just discretely pulled up a weed with his wandless magic over the boy's shoes and watched as he fell over, planting his face on the mud.
Harry's classmates just stood silent, not believing what had just happened, before bursting into laughter. Even the Slytherins were laughing. Falling over for no reason is just funny to pre-teens. Longbottom was loudly laughing at his 'rival's' defeat or whatever. He arrogantly took a step towards Malfoy, and Harry did the same for Longbottom.
The boy's foot was caught by another weed and he fell face first to the mud, right next to Malfoy. Harry telekinetically moved the two boys' wands away from them without anyone noticing. As expected, Malfoy and Longbottom just kept fighting each other in the mud. Their clothes would have probably been ruined if it wasn't for magic. The rest of the first years just kept laughing at the two rivals.
Well, that's one crisis averted. Harry had no interest in being part of this over the top Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry. It just felt too petty and a waste of time. He simply took out his book once more and continued reading. At least, he tried before he noticed that someone was tapping him on the shoulder.
Daphne was giving him a sly smile, "I know what you did…"
"What are you talking about?" Harry responded.
"Stop pretending to be clueless. You know exactly what you did. You goaded Malfoy and Longbottom into falling in the mud while making fun of them to stop the duel situation."
Tracy elaborated, "It was wicked. You just pretended not to care, and you made them look like idiots. How did you do that?"
Harry signed in defeat, "Longbottom and Malfoy are actually very similar. They're both extremely spoilt and like any spoilt boy, they crave attention. If you ignore them, they will get angry, very quickly. They also expect any kind of response for insulting you. If you put some boundaries, like I did when Draco insulted my mother and left a little bit for him to focus on, you would have given him an ultimatum. He could either go too far, or you just wouldn't care. Either way, he doesn't win anything. Neville is very similar. People either worship the ground he walks on, or they just hate him. Someone not caring is very new, and he's desperate to put me in one of these boxes to know how to deal with me."
"So, you ignored the both of them and let them want to buy your attention, to outbid each other, and just pretended not to understand?" Blaise asked.
"Oh, no, this was entirely coincidental. I was just pretending to not pay attention while buying some time until Professor Hooch comes back with Weasley. The whole mud fight thing wasn't part of the plan, believe me, but it's better than the spell brawl that could have happened before."
The moment Harry finished his sentence, the grey-haired woman ran towards the two fighting students and waved her wand, "Immobulus."
The two boys were immobilized by the freezing charm, and the professor waved her wand and sent a few nonverbal spells at the two boys. They floated in the air, and the mud disappeared, revealing two heavily bruised boys. The elder witch glared at the two of them, "In all my years of Hogwarts, I have never seen such horrid behaviour during any of my classes. Crashing into students, getting into fights, what a disgrace. I have only been away for five minutes. You couldn't behave for just five minutes? I am disappointed in both of you and I will speak to both your heads of house and believe me; you will be punished appropriately. As for the rest of you, you did not try to stop the fight, in fact, you were encouraging it. So, I will not continue this class. You will all return to your common rooms, and I will see you next week."
After a few groans and grumblings, the students left the terrace and returned to the common room together, while Hooch took Malfoy and Longbottom to their respective heads of houses. Harry simply sat by the fireplace in the common room and continued his book, while enjoying the company of his friends.
Because Harry realized that they were his friends. It was a strange notion; the fact that he had friends now. He was never the more sociable of creatures and preferred his own company. He rarely ever made an effort to be included in any kind of activity, and yet somehow, he now had three friends that he spent most of his time with.
Harry looked at the two girls and boy that he called friends with a warm look in his eyes. Daphne and Tracy were arguing with each other, while Blaise watched and sometimes added an argument of his own.
However, the young Potter's mind was preoccupied with Professor Hooch's reaction to the behaviour of Ron, Draco, and Neville. At a muggle school, something like this would almost guarantee their expulsions, but as far as Harry understood, they were getting a few detentions and a stern talking to from their heads of houses, nothing more.
Malfoy had almost killed Weasley, and yet no one seemed to make a big deal out of it. It probably had to do with the development of healing magic that seemed to be able to save practically anyone, as long as dark magic isn't involved. Harry fell asleep that day with questions on the nature of healing magic in his mind.
The following day, Harry was woken up with the news that somehow, Neville Longbottom became the Gryffindor seeker. It didn't make sense, since nothing impressive happened during flying lessons other than Weasley almost dying and Malfoy and Longbottom getting into a fistfight in the mud. Harry didn't particularly care about Quidditch, but it seemed like a lot of special dispenses were given to the boy. No wonder the boy was so spoilt and entitled. What the hell had McGonagall been thinking when she gave him that position?
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.