Both girls were thankfully fine because I hit their durable robes instead of something easy to slip out of with the slowing charm. Hermione still had her eyes closed and was still screaming fearfully, but Sue looked around curiously as she floated down very slowly after my spell hit.
It was a rather windy day, and Hermione had her eyes tightly shut. I felt really bad about keeping her suspended, so I immediately worked on getting them down.
One by one, I cancelled the 'Arresto Momentum' with but a thought instead of having to cast 'Finite' on them, and recast the slowing charm to carefully move the girls down to solid ground since I didn't know how Wingardium Leviosa would treat their clothes since I couldn't cast it on the person itself.
When it was Sue's turn to get down second, I still slightly miscalculated and made her slip out of her robe in the end, but thankfully she was dressed beneath it and her fall was less than a meter as she landed on her feet with a stagger on rubbery ground.
With shining eyes, the girl of Chinese descent immediately threw herself into my arms and thanked me over and over as her hug was tightening with every word she spoke. Eventually, she kissed me on the cheek and sprinted towards the other Ravenclaw girls with a heavy blush and with her robes in her hands and left room for Hermione to repeat Sue's performance.
Yet, instead of kissing me, the girl seemed to have unlocked a permanent fear and chose to keep her eyes closed as she was sobbing into my chest. I could only pat her back and hope something else would happen so we didn't have the attention of everyone.
And we were actually lucky because right as Madam Hooch wanted to chastise me for my reckless behavior, Draco Malfoy finally crashlanded and screamed like a pig getting slaughtered by a thousand cuts. I was hoping for the worst to have happened, but as more and more people turned to look at him, I saw Draco was completely fine.
His bones were all in place and at their correct, unbroken lengths. His clothes were barely dirty, but the idiot seemed to have landed on his face and scraped his chin somehow.
"I want those filthy mudbloods expelled! They tried to murder me!" Draco screamed like a banshee.
Everyone looked at him like he was an idiot and even Madam Hooch, who maybe would have taken this seriously, looked very unimpressed. They had all seen Malfoy fly around like a complete lunatic, so who would ever believe that two girls wanted to purposefully do anything to him during their first time on a broom?
Only Marcus Flint seemed to pick up what Malfoy was putting down and ordered Hooch to give those two girls months of detention as he repeatedly said that Ravenclaw would lose hundreds of points for this the moment he talked to Professor Snape.
"Ahem, I have recorded the whole incident and would like for Draco Malfoy to follow me to the headmaster's office for endangering the lives of his fellow students," a voice suddenly silenced everyone.
I looked back and saw Professor Flitwick walking toward Madam Hooch with a huge grin on his face.
'I knew he'd be here. The way Draco was acting out without getting better despite repeated detentions, he must have known the clown would do something like this.'
"Also, 50 points from Slytherin and I recommend you to give Mister Malfoy a lifetime ban for Quidditch while on Hogwarts premises, Madam Hooch."
Then Flitwick looked toward Marcus Flint and calmly said, "For your poor judgment, I intend to take another 50 points from Slytherin and give you a week of detention. Any objections, Mister Flint?"
The troll of a man shook his pale head, and Flitwick once more looked to Madam Hooch before turning to me.
"I'd give you more points, Talion, but I fear to be seen as partial. 20 points to Ravenclaw for your immense bravery in saving the lives of your fellow students. And 10 points for your ingenious use of the slowing charm, no matter how little socks it left you with."
'And, wait - Flitwick must have watched Draco fall without doing anything. Haha, he's such a savage,' I thought in amusement while still patting Hermione's back. The girl still hadn't stopped clinging onto dear life despite the commotion and hearing our head of house, not that I minded. She smelled really nice.
'Wait... he also didn't help me... eh, it was actually pretty fun to fall out of the air, so I won't hold it against him.'
I watched Flitwick move away with Malfoy on whom he cast a quick charm to get rid of the scratch, and then I looked back towards my year mates. Harry and the two Quidditch players landed near me, and it seemed like Hilliard had caught the broom I purposefully dismounted.
He gave me a proud nod and walked over to Madam Hooch, who was still unsure on how to go on from here.
"Hey, hey. It's all good now. You're on solid ground. Nothing will happen to you," I kept whispering into Hermione's ear for a while as my classmates awkwardly left to practice flying a little more after praising me for my actions.
I saw Lavender look proud yet dissatisfied, but I couldn't bring myself to dislodge from Hermione just because Lavender was jealous. The muggleborn witch was still silently crying, after all, and it didn't feel like it would stop soon.
I brought her over to the side, away from prying eyes, and changed a boulder into a servicable bench with a neat spell Flitwick had taught me. Hermione eventually calmed down then, but I soon noticed she was too embarrassed to lift up her head, so she stayed close. But that was also too embarrassing for her, so her heartbeat started accelerating more and more, and breath turned more and more shallow as well.
"Hey, calm down. Your back is turned to everyone, so they can't see. And I promise I won't say anything even if you look like a panda now," I quipped in a low voice. I hoped humor was the way to go from here.
"Who would look like a panda," Hermione whispered into my shoulder in exasperation.
"I dunno. I heard a woman say that she looked like a panda after crying. Now that I think about it, she was probably talking about ruining her eye shadow and other make-up, right?"
Hermione nodded, but with her head still buried.
"Yeah, you barely wear any I think, so you're good. Not like you needed it," I said, but tried my best not to overly praise her without leaving any room to interpret it into saying she was ugly.
It was a tight line to walk, and I hoped I did okay.
Hermione finally looked up and tried changing the topic while hurriedly wiping her face with her sleeve, "What spell did you use?"
"'Arresto Momentum' - a second year charm."
"You're really far ahead, aren't you?"
I nodded with a grin, "Yeah. Magic is simply too magical to not wield it."
Hermione looked down at that, but before she said anything else, she started laughing. I wondered why until I looked down and had to chuckle myself.
I was wearing only a single sock. My shoes were nowhere to be found. I looked rather stupid like that, I would admit.
-----
Tales of my heroism spread through the school like wildfire. During lunch, a lot of people were pointing at me. At Astronomy class during the night, even Professor Sinistra talked about it with us. The next morning at breakfast, tales of how I valiantly jumped to my own death to save two helpless maidens were making the rounds, and the whole story got more and more absurd.
After DADA during lunch, I even heard the Weasley twins tell the story of how I was able to fly without a broom and got both girls simultaneously in a princess carry. Needless to say, I gave both of them a thumbs up and left it at that. This rumor was much better than the true rumor about my death eater grandpa.
Not everyone liked hearing about me again and again, though. The Slytherin table looked terrible even Tuesday, and hearing about it again and again on Wednesday did not help. Malfoy and Flint had managed to lose their house a hundred house points for this incident, bringing Malfoy to a grand total of almost negative two hundred points despite Snape giving him a few pity points during potions class before.
Even with his father's standing and reputation, Draco was starting to get ostracized by his house. And, I was sure I was going to get something in retaliation because attacks on first year students were starting to increase since Wednesday. Sure, they were 'minor' curses and 'pranks', nothing like what happened to me.
But I was certain someone would try to slip something more harmful my way. Which was why I particularly welcomed Flitwick breaking routine and giving me a crash course in spell deflection on Wednesday. The whole thing required copious amounts of spell knowledge, quick reflexes, and a solid foundation in spell casting because you needed to pour 'mana' or magic at the tip of your wand to redirect a spell, and if you did it wrong, you might just empower the spell flying at you and breaking your wand in the process. Building experience in this dueling technique was a hurtful process.
Needless to say, Flitwick wiped the floor with me Wednesday evening, and I thought I was nearly getting the hang of it before Flitwick turned it up a notch and I could barely even follow the trajectory of his spells.
-----
Potions with Slytherin on Thursday morning was even more unpleasant than usual. Malfoy looked positively boiling with rage as even Blaise Zabini changed his potions partner to Theodore Nott, and Snape was not looking great either.
He let me hear it, too, as he lectured me on how much of a dunderhead I was despite not even meddling in Isobel and Hermione's potioneering process. My hands weren't up to it yet, and Snape knew it, too.
I brushed it off and ignored the man as best I could, which somehow earned me detention that I thankfully had to do with Flitwick once he heard about it. And detention with Flitwick was just training - but that also became the starting point of Malfoy no longer having detention with anyone except his godfather, Snape himself.
Friday was something I was not looking forward to because I was sure Lucius Malfoy would make the incident of his son crashing into two stationary witches midair and me saving them while his son became a pariah for his outburst about me. Or well, about him and then about me.
And I was right on the money as he dismissed the Magical Etiquette class ten minutes early and released everyone but me.
"Macnair," Lucius spat in open disdain now that we were alone in the room - something the Ravenclaw girls vehemently tried to oppose, but Lucius simply waved his wand thrice and we were alone in the room.
"Lord Malfoy," I greeted back, keeping my composure and also keeping my wand palmed under my sleeve.
"I had wanted to simply leave you be. After your traitorous whore of a mother sold us out, I was sure that rabid dog Walden would be the last I had to see of your accursed family. But you somehow managed to tarnish my good family name just by existing," Lucius said through gritted teeth and I looked around in wonder.
"Uh, Lord Malfoy... did you just suggest that you were a willing part of the death eater movement? Or which cause did my mother betray that made you so angry?"
Lucius didn't even flinch as he openly mocked me, "Tell it to the world, nobody will listen. You're a nobody and I wield more power than your family ever had. Those that know can no longer do anything to me and those who don't are of no consequence to me."
"Huh, got it. Why did you keep me back then?"
"This... unfortunate attack on your person. I was hoping you'd steer clear of doing anything else that would warrant us having to deal with you, but you had to go against my heir regardless."
"Okay? You start off by admitting you're a death eater and now you're admitting your son was the one who instigated the attack on me while threatening me with more violence. Are you alright, Lord Malfoy? I don't understand what your point is."
"I want you to despair. Nobody can help you now. Nobody will prevent me from getting to you. Look over your shoulder, little Macnair, because that's where you'll find me, always."
"Huh, just because of your little moron? Are you alright in the head?"
Malfoy stayed calm and didn't even get his wand back out from his walking stick as he lifted an eyebrow.
"You dare mock my son in front of me?"
"You already threatened me with death. Can't I at least call your idiot spawn what he is? He keeps insulting me in front of my head of house like he hadn't gotten detention tens of times before, and he lost his house more points than Snape will ever give him in his years at Hogwarts in the first month of being here. Your son is everything a Slytherin is not."
"Good. You speaking up means you'll be a worthy whetstone for him."
I didn't want to make an enemy out of the man so early if ever, but it was too late already since he was as unreasonable as most wizarding common sense, "I wouldn't count on it, old man."
Lucius began to smirk but my next sentence cut him short.
"I'm a penniless orphan after those morons who attacked me stole everything from me. You could burn down the orphanage I grew up in and I would lose nothing, not even a wink of sleep. Get to the Macnair ancestral home before I leave Hogwarts and I wouldn't even know what I lost. But you, Lucius, have quite a bit to lose. A beautiful wife whose family you murdered and schemed against with your dark lord for money for example. What would happen if I revealed that to Lord Arcturus Black? He's still alive in France, isn't he?"
Lucius' eyes shrank.
"What do you mean?"
"Heh, Sirius Black betrayed the Potters? Likely story. Bellatrix willingly married that oaf Lestrange who never got anything over an Acceptable and that only because Slughorn took pity on him? I looked up his grades and hers. If your lord didn't use 'Confundus' at the very least on her parents and outright broke Bellatrix' mind after, I don't think so. Then there's Regulus, the perfect heir, who somehow died under mysterious circumstances all the while you, Lucius Malfoy, are set to gain it all the moment your clown son turns 18 because Walburga Black, the most insane blood purist of House Black, didn't bother writing a will as regent last year or the years before and all of her and Orion Black's siblings safe for your parents-in-law couldn't produce any offsprings?"
"You can prove nothing," Lucius countered with flared nostrils and narrowed eyes.
"Do I need to? Lord Black would rather strike your wife and son from the family tree than let you get away with it if he just suspects it. I wonder why he didn't yet. Maybe he knows even more and you're in luck because he let it happen. But I reckon you'll have at least one uncomfortable conversation with him once he hears someone knows about his family getting decimated by the likes of you."
I stood up, inwardly sweating because this conversation escalated way more than I thought it would, but I betrayed no emotion on my face. This had turned into a shitstorm much faster than I could control, and I wanted out of this room as fast as possible before I said something I would regret.
And I needed to talk to Flitwick urgently, because while I might have said I had nothing to lose, I did finally make friends - a girlfriend, even. And I needed to make sure Malfoy wouldn't touch them.