Chapter 26
"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself and besides just look at Ryan," said Luna reasonably. Harry glanced over and noticed Ryan was visibly more pale and sweating slightly. "what's wrong with him is he sick?" "oh no" said Luna in her dreamy musical voice "he's deathly afraid of heights" Harry looked on in pity at the poor guy. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk." said Luna
Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly not everyone was excited about flying tho besides Ryan, Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, they felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. Ryan knew the real reason was she also had a fear of heights and This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book -- not that she hadn't tried. At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.Harry hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Hufflepuffs table.
A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a gla.s.s ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.
"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things -- this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and
Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.
"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.At three-thirty that afternoon, Luna, Harry,Daphne, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson Ryan was being slowly dragged by his hands with considerable force by Daphne and Luna as he cried anime tears and made excuses like he was sick and his dog died or he had a family emergency. None of them bought any of it. But then Ryan remembered something and he stopped acting like a baby and put on a proud smile and straightened his back walking confidently as they looked at him curiously. It was a clear, breezy day, and the gra.s.s 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. There were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Ryan had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left. Deathtraps Ryan thought as he looked at them.Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."
Ryan glanced down at his broom like it had just killed his entire family. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles. "Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"
"UP" everyone shouted.
Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Hermione's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all Ryan's had somehow smacked him right in the face and Luna and Daphne were giggling at him. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground and he remembered Ryan's antics. Madam Hooch then 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--"
But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips. Luna had distinctly heard Ryan whisper it's for the greater good before swiftly throwing his broom far away smacking Ron in the head with a quietly muttered "YEET." she didn't know what a Yeet was but she knew it would one day change the world. (A/N: SLANG DICTIONARY: Yeet is an exclamation of excitement, approval, surprise, or all-around energy, often as issued when doing a dance move or throwing something.)"Come back, boy!" Madam Hooch shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle -- twelve feet -- twenty feet. they saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and --WHAM -- a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the gra.s.s in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.
"Broken wrist Come on, boy -- it's all right, up you get."
She turned to the rest of the cla.s.s.
"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?"
The others joined in.
"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and s.n.a.t.c.hing something out of the gra.s.s. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him. "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 -- up a tree?"
"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off.
Ryan sneakily took a bucket of popcorn out of his inventory and started to watch the show while Luna snuck some pieces from the side. this was a great changing point in the Harry Potter time line where Harry gets to make the Gryffindor team."Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"
Harry grabbed his broom.
"No!" shouted Hermione. "Madam Hooch told us not to move -- you'll get us all into trouble."
Harry ignored her. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soaredHe turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.
"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"
"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time."Catch it if you can, then!" Malfoy shouted, and he threw the gla.s.s ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground. Harry leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down -- next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball he stretched out his hand -- a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the gra.s.s with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist."HARRY POTTER!"Professor McGonagall was running toward them. "Never -- in all my time at Hogwarts--"
Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her gla.s.ses flashed furiously, "might have broken your neck--Potter, follow me, now."he left, walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle.